The Littlest Things
by Colourful Glitter
Summary: SEQUEL TO THE LITTLEST LISBON! Life for Lisbon and Jane while helping to raise Lisbon's niece.
1. Just Picture It

**Author's Note: HEY EVERYONE! So, this is the sequel to "The Littlest Lisbon". EEP! I'm excited! In fear of blabbering too long in this author's note, I think I will just say that I hope you all enjoy this story as much as the first one.  
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**Disclaimer: It's not my birthday yet, so I still have my thin little ray of hope that someone will get me the Mentalist.**

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The alarm went off and Lisbon grumbled, but turned it off and opened her eyes.

"Mnh. Don't get up." Jane mumbled, nuzzling his face into the back of her shoulder and holding her tighter.

"I have to. We promised Melody that we'd go with her and her father to drop her off on her first day." Lisbon yawned. "Be grateful. This is later than we would have had to get up for work." Lisbon threw the covers off of herself before sliding out of Jane's grip and going to take a shower and change.

-Mentalist-

"Teresa! Patrick!" Melody ran over to them. She was wearing her neon pink and green backpack that they had bought for her while they were school shopping. It was still much too big, but it was the smallest one they could find. Melody's t-shirt had some Pokémon on it that Lisbon couldn't remember the name of, paired with some dark jeans, light up sneakers and her hair was worn in two pigtails.

"Hi, Melody!" Lisbon smiled, picking Melody up and spinning her in the air before hugging her and kissing her head. "Are you excited and all ready for school?"

"Yeah!"

"That's wonderful." Lisbon passed Melody over to Jane.

"You're going to have an awesome day!" Jane kissed Melody's cheek. "I just know you will."

"Thank you." Melody hugged him.

Jane put Melody down and the three adults escorted Melody into the building.

"This looks like your class." James said, looking at the number and name plate on the door. "106. Ms. Clarkson." He knocked on the door.

Melody shuffled her feet nervously.

"You okay, Melody?" Jane asked.

"Mhm." Melody nodded, still shuffling her feet and not looking up to meet his eyes.

"You nervous?" Jane probed.

"Nooo." Melody still didn't look at him.

James knelt down in front of her and kissed her head. "It's okay if you're nervous. I was nervous on my first day ever, too. Just be yourself and have fun. It's going to be okay. I promise. And Teresa and Patrick are going to pick you up after school. I'll see you when I get off work."

"Okay." Melody nodded, smiling at her father.

The door was opened by a middle-aged blonde woman in a blouse and jeans. Her hair was pulled back into a bun. "Hello." She smiled.

James stood up and turned to face her. "Hi, Ms. Clarkson." He held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you." Ms. Clarkson shook his offered hand. She noticed Melody standing close to her father's side, smiling bravely. "And you must be Melody. Our new student."

"Yeah." Melody nodded.

"It's very nice to meet you."

"Thank you. Nice to meet you, too."

"This is my sister, Teresa, and her fiancé, Patrick. They're going to pick Melody up in the afternoon." James explained.

"Very well." Ms. Clarkson returned her attention to the adults. "I look forward to seeing you both later. She shook Lisbon and Jane's hands.

"Likewise." Jane smiled and nodded as he shook Ms. Clarkson's hand.

James picked Melody up, giving her a big hug and a kiss on the nose. "I'll see you tonight." He told her. "I want to hear all about your amazing first day."

"Okay." Melody kissed his cheek. Melody also got a hug, kiss and words of encouragement from Jane and Lisbon before she was placed back on her feet.

"Ready to meet your new classmates?" Ms. Clarkson asked Melody, holding out her hand.

Melody gave a definitive nod and took the teachers hand, following her through the door and waving goodbye to the three adults one final time for the morning.

James took a deep breath, knowing he had to let go and trust Melody to be able to handle herself. "Her school ends at-"

"Three." Jane finished for him. "Don't worry. We won't forget. She's gonna be fine. She's a good kid."

James smiled. "Thanks. I gotta run. Work. I hope this didn't make you guys too late."

"It's fine." Lisbon shook her head. "Patrick barely even woke up this morning anyway."

"Don't blame this on me." Jane gasped, making Lisbon and James laugh.

"I'll pick her up at seven." James said, giving Lisbon and Jane each a hug before hurrying off to his car.

Jane and Lisbon made their way to their car a bit more leisurely, hand in hand.

"I'm surprised." Jane commented after a moment while they walked on the sidewalk to their car. The traffic in and around the school lot was horrible at the moment, so they had parked down the street.

"Hm?" Lisbon raised a brow.

"I'm surprised with you. And a bit with James. I thought you were going to be super protective. Go all 'mama bear Lisbon' on me. But, no, you held it together. Bravo."

"I am _not that_ bad." Lisbon scoffed.

Jane chuckled, letting go of her hand so he could wrap his arm around her waist. "Of course you are." He kissed her head. "I'm surprised with James, too. He held himself together quite well. But he's nervous. I get it."

"Of course." Lisbon agreed. "Thank you for sharing your great knowledge and insight." Lisbon joked sarcastically.

"Oh, you laugh." Jane told her. "Go right ahead. But, I've had more experience with this sort of thing than you."

The smile faltered on Lisbon's face and she felt some awkwardness invade their moment. "I-I'm sorry." She whispered as they stopped in front of their car.

"You don't have to be." Jane said, hugging her and kissing her head. "I'm learning how to handle living with it better. I have you and Melody to thank for that."

Lisbon pulled away enough to look at him and smiled slightly. "I'm glad you're finding peace with yourself on the topic."

"I am." Jane nodded before leaning forward and placing a small kiss on her lips. "Lets go before everyone thinks that we've gotten lost on our way to work."

Lisbon smiled and went to get in the driver's seat and they headed off to work.

-Mentalist-

"Hey! I was wondering if we were going to bump into you two!" Jane greeted Sandy and Andy Fallon.

"Hello." Sandy returned just as cheerfully, giving Lisbon and Jane each a hug. "So, you and James did end up enrolling Melody here."

"It was the closest school to their apartment that still had openings." Lisbon nodded.

"How was Melody this morning?" Andy asked. "Or did just James drop her off?"

"Oh, no. We came as well." Jane assured the other man. "She was a little nervous, but she seemed to handle it all very well."

"Was Ellie nervous?" Lisbon asked.

"Very." Sandy nodded. "She was almost terrified. Her cheeks were red before we even found the classroom. Poor baby. But we tried to be as cheerful and encouraging as we could."

"That's all you can do." Jane nodded. "And then trust them to be able to handle themselves well for the day."

"Yeah." Andy nodded. "Can't coddle them forever. As easy as that would be."

"I hear that." Lisbon agreed.

"But at least they'll both see one friendly face." Sandy smiled.

"That's true." Jane conceded as they looked at all the kindergarteners pouring into the little fenced-off play area after the final bell.

"There's Ellie." Sandy told them when she saw her daughter. "Ellie!" Sandy and her husband waved to get the girl's attention.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Ellie's face lit up and she ran over to meet her parents at the fence door.

"Melody!" Lisbon called and waved when she saw her niece walk out of the school door.

"Teresa! Patrick!" Melody sprinted to the fence door right behind Ellie to meet her aunt and soon to be uncle.

Ms. Clarkson was standing by the door and opened it for the two girls.

"Did you have fun?" Lisbon asked, crouching down to give Melody a hug and picking her up. Ellie was already being hugged by both her parents.

"Yeah!" Melody practically giggled.

"What are those?" Jane asked, referring to the papers that Melody had in her hands.

"Pictures." Melody told him. "I made them."

"Wow." Jane smiled. "They sound wonderful."

"They were very good girls today." Ms. Clarkson informed the adults. "Wonderful."

Melody and Ellie looked at each other and smiled, proud of themselves.

"That's very nice to hear." Sandy smiled and kissed Ellie's head.

They all moved aside so that another child could be picked up by their parents.

"Be sure to let James know that he's free to call us any time. We could give Melody and Ellie another play date. Maybe we'll go for a picnic or something."

"A picnic?" Melody gasped, smiling. "I want to go on a picnic!"

"You'll have to ask Daddy." Lisbon kissed Melody's cheek.

"We'll be sure to remind him." Jane said. "Sounds like fun."

"We'll see you later then." Andy nodded.

"Of course." Jane smiled.

They all said their goodbyes and headed their separate ways.

"Am I going to CBI with you?" Melody asked as Lisbon strapped her into the car seat.

"Yes." Lisbon answered.

"Yay!" Melody cheered as they pulled out of their parking spot and drove to the office. The drive was filled with Melody babbling on about her first day of school, which Jane and Lisbon happily listened to.

"And I got a gold star for my ABC's!" Melody informed them excitedly as they pulled into their parking space in the CBI lot.

"A gold star!" Jane gasped, smiling as he turned to look at her. "Well, now you're going to have to show us your gold star. That's wonderful."

"Thank you." Melody smiled and blushed at the compliment.

They all got out of the car and walked into the CBI building.

"Hello!" Melody waved to the team, working diligently in the bullpen.

"Hi." Van Pelt smiled brightly and waved back. "How was your first day of school?"

"It was really good!" Melody told her as she ran over to the red headed agent for a hug.

"That's wonderful." Van Pelt gave Melody a big hug.

Once Melody had gotten a hug from Van Pelt, she hurried to give one to Cho who stoically returned the gesture, but Jane was sure there was a smile hidden on his face.

"Are you going to show Teresa and I the gold star you got today?" Jane asked as Lisbon started to head for her office. Anything to keep the brunette from working.

"Oh, a gold star." Rigsby sounded impressed as he and Melody shared a hug. "You must have had a very good time. Good job." He held out his hand and Melody gave him a high-five.

"Thank you." Melody smiled and hurried to follow Jane into Lisbon's office. They all sat on the couch and Jane handed the pictures he was holding on to for Melody.

"What are those?" Lisbon asked, referring to the papers.

"They're pictures." Melody told her. She held one of them out to her. "This one is for you and Patrick."

"Yeah?" Lisbon smiled, taking the picture and looking at it. "So, this is us. What's going on in the picture?"

"This is you." Melody pointed. "And that's Patrick. That's me. We're at Disneyland with the princesses."

"What's that black spot on your face?" Lisbon asked.

"It's my eye patch."

"Is that a ninja sword?" Jane asked, pointing that the black line drawn over one side of Melody's dress in the picture.

"Yes." Melody grinned.

"It's a lovely picture." Lisbon kissed Melody's head.

"Thank you."

"Who's this picture for?" Jane asked, looking at the second picture Melody had. "Is this one for Daddy?"

"Yeah." Melody nodded.

"What's happening in it?" Jane inquired.

"Me and Daddy are playing soccer at the park in Chicago. And those are the seagulls. One of them tried to steal my ice cream that Daddy bought me. But I got it away from them."

"What's that?" Lisbon pointed at a light brown blotch on James' shirt.

"It's a band-aid." Melody explained. "Because Daddy is going to get all better and then we can go play soccer all the time."

"I'm sure he'd love to play more soccer with you." Lisbon kissed Melody's head again. "He'll love the picture."

"I hope so." Melody looked up at her aunt.

-Mentalist-

It was just after seven when James showed up to take Melody home. Melody was almost asleep on Lisbon's office couch.

"Hi, sweetie." James picked her up carefully and her head rested on his shoulder.

"Hi, Daddy." Melody slurred tiredly as her eyelids drooped while her head rested on his shoulder.

"Are you that tired after your first day?" James chuckled.

"Mnh." Melody grumbled.

"Patrick played 'tag' with her today." Lisbon rolled her eyes.

"That explains it." James smiled. "Say goodnight to Teresa, Melody."

Melody lifted her head from her father's shoulder and looked at her aunt.

Lisbon gave Melody a hug. "Goodnight. Sweet dreams. I'll see you tomorrow after school."

"Goodnight, Teresa." Melody yawned, returning the hug.

James and Melody also said goodnight to the rest of the team, including Jane, and then headed out to go home.

"I think today went very well." Jane said happily, strolling back into Lisbon's office as she sat down behind her desk.

"I think so, too." Lisbon nodded. "Just don't play tag with her tomorrow. That actually put another complaint on my desk."

"We'll see what happens tomorrow, tomorrow." Jane smiled as he leaned over her desk and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

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**Author's Note: That was chapter one. Let me know what you all think. I hope you enjoyed it. See you at the next chapter. =3  
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	2. Not Sorry

**Author's Note: Thank you to Anon, Pen99, LAurore, Marcia Santos, Guest, wantingmore and Vikki for your awesome reviews of the first chapter! I'm glad you all enjoyed it. This is the second chapter and it's in November, so I've skipped some time between chapters. This ended up a longer chapter than I thought it was going to be, but that doesn't really matter. I hope you all enjoy it!  
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**Disclaimer: Still wishing.**

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What else about this day could get any worse? Two bad news calls in one day. And for once, they weren't because of Jane. The first was from James saying that he was physically having a very bad day and asking if she could take Melody for the night as well. He didn't want Melody to get upset by seeing him so sick, which Lisbon understood. The phone call was only so bad because now _she_ was worried for him. Then, only about two hours later, she got the second call. From Melody's school. That was why she and Jane were in the car and on their way. Starting her third month of school, and Lisbon was already being called into the office.

"Teresa Lisbon." She showed her ID to the office secretary, then led to one of the rooms that branched off of the main office hallway.

"The principal will be here shortly." The secretary informed them.

"Thanks." Lisbon and Jane nodded at the woman as they quickly entered the room and shut the door behind them. It seemed to be a spare room to keep kids that weren't feeling well. There were a few chairs, a desk and a small cot in the room.

"Hello." Melody said, tentatively to her aunt and uncle to be, from where she sat on the cot with her feet dangling over the side and hands in her lap.

"What happened?" Lisbon asked, trying to sound neutral as she and Jane sat down on either side of Melody. She wasn't sure if she should be angry with Melody or sympathetic.

Melody looked up at her aunt. She had recovered from the nose bleed, but the bruises on her left cheek and under her right eye were just starting to form and her bottom lip was a bit swollen. She also had some cuts and bruises on her hands and arms. There was dirt all over her clothes. "It wasn't my fault."

"What happened?" Lisbon repeated.

"They said we could play with the big kids at recess. Me and Ellie were at the swings and then we wanted to go on the monkey bars. We went to the monkey bars and we saw Danny and his older brother being mean to Connor. Connor tried to go away from them, but they wouldn't let him. So, I told them to stop it. I told them to leave Connor alone. They said no. They told me I'm a baby and that I should play with my dollies. I don't play with dollies. I told them they were being mean and they had to stop. They wouldn't listen to me! Danny pushed Connor on the ground and I tried to help Connor up and they pushed me too. I got up and I pushed him back. He hit me! He hit me _first_! He said I hit him for no reason. He's lying. I was helping Connor!"

"When you see something wrong, you go tell a teacher." Lisbon told her.

"I yelled. Ellie yelled, too. Ellie went to get a teacher when I was trying to help Connor up and got pushed."

"Why were they being mean to Connor?" Jane asked.

"I don't know." Melody shook her head. "They didn't tell me when I asked. I'm not a baby. I'm five now. I turned five in October. I'm _not_ a baby."

"I know." Lisbon assured her. "I know you're not a baby. But, fighting with Danny was still wrong."

"But it wasn't my fault!" Melody protested.

"I expect you to have known better and gotten a teacher instead of getting in the middle of that fight." Lisbon told her.

"But-"

"No buts. I understand that you were trying to help that other boy out and that they were mean to you as well, but-"

"No buts." Melody interrupted, angrily.

"_However_," Lisbon rephrased. "I'm not going to support the situation of you getting into fights. You can't just get into fights all the time, Melody."

"It's not all the time!" Melody protested. "It's only been two times. And it wasn't my fault for both times!"

"Lets make sure there isn't a third time."

Melody looked down at her knees, visibly upset that she was in trouble for a fight that wasn't her fault. Danny and his brother had started it. Not her. Why was her aunt acting like it was _her_ fault?

Moments later, they were called into the principal's office with the boy-Danny-and his parents.

"Okay." Mr. Johnson sighed heavily as he sat down behind his desk. "I hear there was some fighting on the playground."

Everyone was silent.

"I have heard two different versions of this story. The first version I hear is that Danny," Mr. Johnson glanced at the boy "was hit for no apparent reason by Melody." He glanced over at said girl.

"That's not tr-"

Lisbon shushed her niece gently, which only served to make Melody more angry.

"The second version I hear is that Melody was defending a classmate of hers that was being picked on by Danny and his older brother."

" Mr. Johnson," Danny's mother spoke up. "With all due respect, Danny and Nathan are good boys. Nathan has been here for three years without any complaint."

"Yes, Mrs. Ashford, I understand that." The principal nodded. "However, I find it hard to believe that a student would be attacked out of the blue, for no reason. And, even if he was, he still did attack Melody without trying to get a teacher to help him like he should have. From what I hear, it was Melody's friend that got the teacher."

"She lied!" Danny blurted.

"She did _not_!" Melody shouted back, Lisbon grabbing her hand to keep her still.

"Shouting and being aggressive like that." Mr. Ashford shook his head. "Obviously she needs help controlling her anger, you can't take that out on our boys."

"Excuse me!?" Lisbon spat. "There is nothing wrong with her!" She turned to address the principal. "Melody isn't violent. She doesn't go around attacking other kids for the fun of it. I'll admit that she shouldn't have been fighting, but neither should have the boys she fought against. And they especially shouldn't have been picking on that other boy."

"Detention. For a week, for both of them." Mr. Johnson decided. "No recess."

"It wasn't my fault!" Melody insisted.

"Ssshhhh…" Jane said, quietly, patting her shoulder.

"I think Danny at least deserves an apology." Mrs. Ashton said.

"I think Melody deserves an apology as well." Jane added.

"She almost split my son's lip open." Mrs. Ashton spat at him.

As they got up and faced them, Jane had to keep his brows from raising into his hairline. The boys lip was more swollen than Melody's.

"That was Nathan!" Melody said. "He tried to hit me and Danny was in the way!"

"Nuh-uh! Mommy, it was all Melody's fault!" Danny began to sniffle and tear up. "She hit me really hard and wouldn't leave me alone!"

"Liar!"

"Mommy!" Nathan cried and hugged his mother.

"And he called _me_ a baby." Melody grumbled.

Lisbon crouched down to be at eye level with Melody. "Just apologise to him, please? It'll be easier if you do."

"No. It's not my fault and I'm not sorry. You can only say sorry if you are. I'm not. Not. Not. Not."

"Melody." Lisbon pleaded. "It will be better if you are sorry and you apologise. You should be the bigger person."

"He's bigger than me."

"I mean, be a better person."

"I am the better person than him."

"That's not a very good attitude to have." Lisbon sighed.

"But it's true." Melody said.

"Come on, Melody. Please?"

"No. It's not my fault. I'm not sorry. Stop acting like it's all my fault. It's not my fault."

"I'm not saying it is." Lisbon shook her head.

"Then why do _I_ have to apologise?"

"It will just make things easier."

"No."

"I guess we shouldn't waste our time looking for an apology." Mr. Ashton said with an air of entitlement in his voice. "We'll see you later, Principal Johnson." With that, he left with his wife and son.

Lisbon, Jane and Melody quickly left as well, saying goodbye. Lisbon and Jane both reached down to take Melody's hands, but Melody refused to let them, opting instead to fold her arms tightly over her chest. When either adult tried to touch her at all, she would jerk away.

Lisbon opened the door and Melody climbed inside by herself, not wanting to be helped.

The drive to Melody and James' apartment was silent and a little uncomfortable for the adults, who were pretty sure they saw steam emanating from the newly five-year-old in the back seat. They got to the apartment, Melody grabbing a change of clothes for herself before locking Lisbon and Jane out of the bathroom so she could wash herself off.

"You were quiet." Lisbon whispered to Jane as they packed an overnight bag for Melody. "In the principal's office."

"Yeah, well, I didn't want to get Melody expelled or anything on my account." Jane shrugged casually.

"Jee. Wish you took that kind of consideration for my job at work."

"Oh, that's different." Jane dismissed. "I have leverage at work. They can't keep me without keeping you. I have no leverage at Melody's school."

Lisbon just rolled her eyes.

-Mentalist-

When they got out of the car at the CBI building, Melody had undone her car seat buckle by herself.

"I can do it myself." Melody snapped at Jane, seeing his curious expression. "You didn't think I could, did you?"

Once again, Melody refused to let Jane or Lisbon hold her hands or touch her while they walked. Melody made a beeline into the bullpen, knowing it was the opposite direction of her aunt's office where Lisbon and Jane were headed.

Van Pelt gave them a worried look, noticing Melody's bad mood and injuries.

Jane replied with a pleading expression and tilting his head in Melody's direction.

Van Pelt nodded and got up to talk to Melody.

Lisbon very visibly wanted to talk to Melody, but Jane steered her toward her office, closing the door behind them.

"Let Melody cool down." Jane rubbed Lisbon's shoulders. "It's going to be okay. Van Pelt will talk to her and she'll feel better. Melody will be mad for another hour, and then she'll just get tired of being mad and then we can talk to her."

"I wasn't wrong, was I?" Lisbon looked at Jane, worriedly. "You don't think I was too hard on her?"

"No, no. Asking her to apologise might not have been the best idea, but you weren't too hard on her. You listened to her side and you didn't yell at her." He hugged Lisbon tightly and kissed her shoulder. "Melody just needs to cool down. You were fine. You didn't do anything wrong."

There were tears in Lisbon's eyes. "I just…James is in the hospital and I don't want to make her feel like she has to fight against me-"

"It's hard." Jane agreed. "It's not how we would have wanted things to turn out. I promise she will come around and talk to us. She'll understand when we talk to her. Just let her be angry right now and get it out. That's what she needs. And when she is done with being angry, and when she needs us, we will still be here."

Lisbon nodded and sniffled.

-Mentalist-

"Melody?" Van Pelt crouched down in front of where Melody had curled herself into a corner while Jane and Lisbon headed into Lisbon's office. "Hey, come on. Talk to me? Please?"

"Go away." Melody's voice was muffled from under her arms. She was sitting in a corner with her legs pulled against her chest, hugged by her arms and her head placed on her knees. "I don't want to talk." She sobbed. "No one listens to me."

"I'll listen." Van Pelt said. "I promise, sweetie. What happened?"

Melody just continued to sob.

"Talking about it can help you feel better." Van Pelt gently placed a hand on Melody's head. "Come on. We can even get a snack."

Melody sniffled.

"There might be some leftover pizza." Van Pelt pressed.

Melody peeked out over her knee. "Pizza?"

"Uh-huh." Van Pelt smiled and nodded. "But, first, how about we talk somewhere private?"

Melody gave a small nod, holding out her arms to invite Van Pelt to pick her up, which the red haired agent did.

Van Pelt carried Melody into an empty briefing room, closing the curtains and sitting down on a chair, placing Melody on her lap. "What's wrong?"

Melody continued to sniffle as she snuggled against Van Pelt. "It wasn't my fault. I got into a fight because Danny was being mean to Connor-and my head hurts. And my arms. And my hands."

"I'll get you an aspirin, but first, what happened?"

"I was helping Connor and then Danny said I hurt him for no reason and he blamed me. It wasn't my fault. And Teresa and Patrick don't believe me. Teresa thinks that it's my fault."

"No." Van pelt shook her head in disbelief. "I'm sure she believes you."

"Then why did she try to make me apologise? Why? If it wasn't my fault, why should I apologise? She doesn't believe me!" Melody sobbed.

"Ssshhh." Van Pelt soothed, running her fingers through Melody's hair. "We'll go get you some pizza and an aspirin, okay? Come on."

-Mentalist-

"Jane."

Jane turned from the counter where his newly brewed tea sat at the sound of his name. "Yes, Grace?"

"Melody's asleep on your couch in the bullpen, if you wanted her."

"How's she feeling?"

"I got her a kids aspirin because she said she was feeling sore. I don't blame her. She looks like one giant bruise. And I got her something to eat."

"Is she still angry?"

"She's calmed down quite a bit. She thinks you and Lisbon didn't believe her about the fight not being her fault."

"Yeah. I thought so." Jane said, thoughtfully. "I think I will take her. Thank you, Grace. You've been a wonderful help."

"No problem." Van Pelt smiled. "Anything to help." She turned and left the break room.

Jane glanced down at his tea. He couldn't carry it and Melody at the same time. He sighed heavily, concluding that he would have to enjoy some newly brewed tea another time. Some things were more important. Jane made his way into the bullpen and over to his couch, carefully scooping up Melody and carrying her into Lisbon's office, closing the door with his foot behind him. "Special delivery." He said quietly.

Lisbon looked up from her paperwork at him, smiling a little at seeing Melody. "She feeling better?"

"Van Pelt said she had calmed down." Jane nodded. "Come over here."

Lisbon got up and approached him.

"Here." Jane handed Melody off to Lisbon.

A little surprised, Lisbon took Melody.

"Now, go sit down and have a cuddle." Jane gestured to the couch in Lisbon's office.

"Huh?"

"You heard me. You've been upset since visiting Melody's school and you've been worried about her. Sit down and have a little cuddle with her. It'll make you feel better. Come on. Off you go." Jane ushered her toward the couch.

Lisbon sat down on the piece of furniture, cuddling Melody close.

"See?" Jane smiled. "Isn't it nice?"

"Shut up." Lisbon smiled.

"Love you, too." Jane smirked, kissing Lisbon's head.

-Mentalist-

Melody slept for quite a while. Lisbon had to hand her snuggle session off to Jane so that she could get back to work. Jane had gladly accepted a snuggle session. The team had started heading home for the night, when Lisbon decided she should head out as well. Lisbon was holding onto Melody, waiting for Jane to go to the washroom before they headed home when Melody stirred from her sleep.

Melody's eyelids fluttered open and she looked up at her aunt, tiredly.

"Hi, sweetie." Lisbon smiled. "You feeling better?"

Melody replied with a small nod.

"That's good." Lisbon used one of her hands to gently tuck some hair behind Melody's ear. "You're going to stay with Patrick and I tonight, okay? Your Daddy had…some late appointments."

"Okay." Melody mumbled as she looked away. She didn't seem angry.

"Hey." Lisbon said gently, sitting down on her office couch. "I know you were angry at me because I wanted you to apologise. It's not because I didn't believe you."

Melody glanced at her. "Why, then?"

"I thought they'd leave you alone if you apologised. I don't want them to bother you anymore."

"I'll be okay." Melody assured her.

"I do think it was nice of you to stand up for that other kid." Lisbon told her. "But, next time, could you _please_ go get a teacher instead. Fist fighting isn't okay. Do you understand?"

Melody nodded.

Lisbon smiled.

"_Aw_. I'm gone for one minute-_one minute_-and I miss the heart-warming moment." Jane pouted as he walked back into Lisbon's office.

Lisbon chuckled. "Oh, I think we can get Patrick in on a little group hug, can't we, Melody?" She looked at her niece.

Melody nodded and giggled.

Jane hurried over and flopped down on the couch next to Lisbon and pulled them both into a snugly group hug.

"You know we love you, right?" Lisbon asked Melody.

"No matter what." Jane added.

"Yeah." Melody looked up at them both and smiled. "I love you, too."

"And Daddy." Lisbon put in.

"Es-peshally Daddy." Melody agreed.

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**Author's Note: And that was chapter two! A review would be a totally awesome birthday present, if you wouldn't mind! :)  
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	3. Please and Receive

**Author's Note: I'm not sure how I managed to finish writing this as quickly as I did, but I did. I just got quite a lot of writing done for some reason. Productivity, I'm not very used to the concept, though I really wish I were. Haha. This chapter takes place near Christmas. Thank you to: Pen99, Anon, Marcia Santos, MyDreamsForYou, GraceVanPeltFan4ever, and Guest for your reviews on the second chapter! I'm so glad you all liked it. =3**

**Disclaimer: No one got me the Mentalist for my birthday. Sigh.**

* * *

"Here." Melody placed a package wrapped in bright pink, shiny wrapping paper on Van Pelt's desk with a big smile on her face. The wrapping job was messy and Van pelt was sure that Melody had used more tape than wrapping paper to wrap it, but that made it even more cute. "But you can't open it until Christmas."

"Aw." Van Pelt pouted. "But that's so far away."

Melody shook her head. "I know. But, I can't open any of the ones people gave me until Christmas either. No one is allowed to."

"Okay." Van Pelt sighed. "If I have to." The she smiled. "Thank you for the gift." She kissed Melody's head.

"You're welcome." Melody smiled brightly and continued on to Cho and Rigsby. Her little arms were full with their presents.

Jane supervised the gift distribution from his couch with a good cup of tea in his hand.

"For Batman." Melody handed another messily wrapped present in green paper to Rigsby. She had taken to calling him Batman all the time. Apparently that had started an argument with another student in her class who insisted that there was no way she could know Batman in real life. Luckily, no fist fights had ensued. She even started calling Benjamin, Bat Ben or Bat Benny.

"Thank you." Rigsby smiled, taking the present. "Can _I_ open it before Christmas?"

"No." Melody deadpanned, in a very Cho-like fashion that Jane almost laughed at from where he sat on his couch. Instead, he just choked on his sip of tea.

"Aw. Okay, okay." Rigsby gave in.

Last up was Cho. Melody handed him a present wrapped in red paper. "Here you go."

Cho took the gift and placed it on his desk. "Thank you. Don't worry. I'll wait until Christmas to open it. I can follow rules."

Melody giggled. "Good. Can I have a hug?"

No one was sure if Melody enjoyed being one of very, very few people that Cho ever hugged or if she always asked to annoy him. Regardless, no one had even seen him say no when she asked and today was no different. Cho leaned down and gave Melody a hug.

When the hug was over Melody skipped over to Jane and got on the couch.

"Excited for Christmas break?" Jane asked as Melody settled into the cushion next to him.

"I'm excited for Christmas. I hope Ellie and everyone else likes their presents."

"I'm sure they will. You're very good at finding presents for people." Jane told her.

"Thank you." Melody smiled.

-Mentalist-

"But how will he _know_?" Melody asked for the third time that night.

"He just will." Jane told her again.

"But, _how_?"

Lisbon entered the living room. "Because he's magic." She picked Melody up and placed the small girl on her hip. "Santa will always know where to deliver the right presents because he's magic. So, even though you and Daddy are staying here this Christmas, he will still know the right place to bring the presents."

"Okay. That makes sense." Melody nodded.

"What?" Jane was dismayed.

Lisbon grinned.

"Is Daddy ready yet?" Melody asked.

"I think he's almost ready." Lisbon put Melody down. "Why don't you run up and check?"

"Okay." Melody hurried out of the living room and to the stairs. She looked really cute in her red and green Christmas Eve dress.

Lisbon sat on the couch, leaning into Jane's side as he draped an arm over her shoulders.

"She believes in Santa Clause, but she wouldn't believe in cookie elves. Children are baffling." Jane sighed.

Lisbon chuckled. "You're just grumpy because I gave a better answer than you."

"I am not." Jane kissed her head. "But you do look lovely." The little twinkling, colourful lights that were strung on the Christmas tree reflected in her eyes and played on her skin, making her look almost angelic.

Lisbon blushed. "Thank you. You look quite handsome."

"Well, thank you." Jane smiled. "I'm glad, because there's this girl I'm trying to impress…"

"There's a girl?" Lisbon raised a brow, but played along.

"Yeah-well, she's a woman. She's just a very short woman-"

Lisbon smacked his chest really hard.

"Ouch." Jane chuckled, taking the hand she'd smacked him with and lacing their fingers together. "She's kind of violent."

"Maybe you shouldn't mess with her, then."

"But it's so much fun to. She's really cute when she's angry."

"Shut up." Lisbon looked away.

Jane just laughed softly and kissed her head.

"Ready!" Melody announced as she and her father descended the stairs.

Jane and Lisbon stood up and went to the entryway to get their shoes on. Lisbon was wearing a flowing dark green velvet dress that almost looked black and reached her knees. Her hair was down and wavy, gold cross around her neck with dangling silver earrings. They all got their shoes on and headed out for the Christmas Mass.

-Mentalist-

"Daddy! _Daddy_!" Melody tried to shake her father's shoulder to wake him up. "Get up! Hurry! It's Christmas!"

"That's great." James mumbled tiredly. "Go see what Santa got you."

"Don't you want to see what Santa got _you_?"

"I'll see what he got me later. You go see your presents." James snuggled against the pillow more.

Melody huffed and jumped off the queen bed to hurry across the hall and see if she would have better luck getting Lisbon and Jane up. "Get up!" Melody jumped on their bed. "Get up! It's Christmas! Come on! Come on!"

"Melody." Lisbon moaned, snuggling more against Jane.

"Wake uuuuuuuuuuuup!" Melody whined.

Jane propped himself up on one elbow, rubbing his eyes with his other hand. "You go ahead. We'll be down in a minute, okay?"

Melody pouted a bit, disappointed that no one seemed as excited as she was. "Okay." She jumped off the bed and hurried downstairs to the living room to unwrap all her gifts.

"I wish it were one of those days where _we_ woke _her_ up." Lisbon mumbled.

Jane just chuckled and got out of bed, Lisbon following close behind. They saw that James was still sleeping in the guest room.

"Hey." Lisbon said, grabbing the pillow Melody had used to sleep on and hitting her second youngest brother with it. "Get up. She's your baby. Go watch her open her presents."

"Fine." James sighed dramatically as he got out of bed and they all went to the living room where Melody had started to open her presents.

"Whoa!" Melody gasped as she tore off the wrapping paper of the newest present she'd picked up. "Santa brought me chocolate!"

"Yeah?" Lisbon smiled, sitting down next to Melody on the floor in front of the tree.

"Yeah! And they're shaped like reindeer!" Melody held them so Lisbon could see better.

"They're very pretty." Lisbon smiled, taking the present and placing it off to the side. She and Jane had been the ones to buy her the chocolate reindeer.

James sat down as well, letting Melody sit on his crossed legs.

Jane sat down next to Lisbon and reached under the tree, grabbing another present and handing it to Melody for her to open.

Melody gladly ripped through the wrapping paper and moved the box to be able to see what the item was. "Drinking…hat." Melody smiled. It was one of those hard hats that had cup holders on the side with tubes so that she could drink without actually holding the cups. "Daddy! Look!" Melody held the box up.

"I see it." James laughed and helped Melody open the box so she could try the hat on. It was a bit too big for her head.

"I think she'll grow into it." Jane knocked on the hat.

"Maybe I can use it in the meantime." James teased, taking the hat and placing it on his head.

"Daddy!" Melody laughed.

-Mentalist-

Rigsby and Sarah had offered to host the Christmas dinner at their place, so that's where everyone was gathering.

"Did you like your present?" Melody asked Rigsby as they were let in and were taking off their shoes.

"Yes." Rigsby smiled. "It's the best hot chocolate mix that I've ever had."

"That's good. I thought you'd like it." Melody grinned.

"Of course I did. Ben is in the living room watching TV if you want to join him." Rigsby said.

"Okay!" Melody gave him a hug and skipped off toward the living room. "What are you watching Bat Benny?"

Rigsby laughed softly. "Everyone else is setting up for dinner if you guys want to help."

"Sure." Jane nodded.

Jane, Lisbon and James were all greeted cheerily by Van Pelt and Sarah as they entered the kitchen and dining room, Cho gave them all a polite nod and hello.

"The chicken should be done really soon." Sarah told them as they all tended to different jobs.

It wasn't long before the oven pinged, signalling that dinner was done cooking.

"I'll go round up Melody and Ben." Lisbon offered, being closest to the living room. "Melody. Benjamin. Time for dinner." Lisbon said when she got into the living room.

"Hold on." Melody responded. "It's at the good part." She was watching some cartoon Lisbon hadn't really seen before, but looked oddly familiar.

"_Now_." Lisbon insisted. "You can watch TV later."

"But-"

"No buts." Lisbon shook her head.

Melody grumbled and reached for the remote, but discovered it wasn't where she thought it was. She looked around for a moment.

"This." Benjamin pulled the remote out from between the couch cushions, giggling.

"I gotta turn off the TV." Melody held out her hands.

Benjamin proceeded to push multiple buttons on the remote, sending the TV into a fit of channel changing.

"Stooooop." Melody complained, yanking the remote from Ben's hands, pushing even more buttons. Melody turned to shut the TV off, but paused at what she saw on the screen. A big arena with gymnastics equipment. A faceless voice announced the name of the next athlete and the camera zoomed in on a young girl, about sixteen. She stood at the edge of the tumbling floor, taking a deep breath before stepping on.

"Come on, Melody." Lisbon walked over and took the remote off the cushion to turn the TV off herself.

"Wait!" Melody yelled, grabbing for the remote. "Wait! Wait! Wait!"

Lisbon gave Melody an odd look, but waited anyway, watching the program as well. The music started and the athlete had begun her routine, with her back flips, handsprings and whatever other moves had been choreographed. Lisbon glanced over at Melody, who looked completely fascinated by the whole thing. Lisbon turned the TV off when the routine was done and the audience was clapping. "Time for dinner."

"What was that?" Melody asked as she slid off the couch.

"Gymnastics." Lisbon replied, picking Benjamin up and walking with Melody to the dinning room.

"It looked really cool."

"It did." Lisbon nodded.

"Can I do gymnastics?"

"I thought you wanted to do soccer."

"And gymnastics." Melody said. "Soccer _and_ gymnastics."

"Well, you'll have to ask Daddy." Lisbon told her as they made it into the dinning room.

"Ask daddy what?" James turned toward them.

"Daddy, I want to do gymnastics!"

"But we're already going to sign you up for soccer." James told her.

"I want to do gymnastics, _too_."

"I don't know…"

"Please, Daddy? Please, please, _pleeeaaasssseeeee_?"

"I'll think about it." James said.

Jane had to stop himself from smiling. When it came to Melody an '_I'll think about it_' from James Lisbon was almost as good as a yes. He also had to admit that it wasn't too different with himself or Teresa Lisbon.

Melody seemed satisfied with that answer and got into her seat. "Did you like your present, Grace?"

"Yes, I did. I'm even wearing them today." Van Pelt moved some hair out of the way so Melody could see the sparkling snowflake-shaped earrings and held up her wrist to show the matching bracelet.

Melody smiled widely, pleased that Van Pelt liked her gift. "And Cho? Did you like your ninja teddy?"

"Yes." Cho answered in his same stoic manner, causing everyone to wonder if he was lying or not. "It's very nice."

Jane was sure Cho secretly loved the teddy and had it somewhere very visible in his apartment.

-Mentalist-

"Daddy?" Melody said tiredly as they all headed out to their car after their visit.

"Yes, Melody?"

"Santa forgot."

"Forgot what?" James asked, adjusting Melody's hat a bit.

"I asked him for snow. He forgot to bring some. I wanted to show Ellie how to make a snowman and snow angels. And we can't make our snow people family we always make every winter."

"Sacramento doesn't really get snow like Chicago does." James told her.

"Why?"

"It's not cold enough."

"You don't make snow people?" Melody looked at Lisbon.

"No, I can't." Lisbon shook her head.

"Oh." Melody looked down, disappointedly. "I thought Santa would bring some. I asked really nice."

"I'm sorry." James kissed her head. "Maybe we'll go back up to Chicago one year. And you can play in the snow. But no roughhousing with Annie again."

Melody smiled a bit and giggled. "All the roof snow fell on her. She looked like the abom-nable snowman."

"She wasn't very happy about it." But, James couldn't help the hint of a smile that played on his lips.

Melody leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

"Okay, we'll go home and you can go to bed."

"I'll just drop you off at home. We'll bring the presents over later." Lisbon told James.

"Thanks." James smiled as he got in the car.

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**Author's Note: Yay for cute Christmas moments! Hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading! Please leave a review.  
**


	4. Little White Bells

**Author's Note: Okay. Wwwoooowwww. That took way longer than I thought it was going to, to update. I'm so sorry everyone! I didn't want for it to take so long, but it did. I just hope that this chapter was worth the wait and you all enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Mentalist.**

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It was a beautiful and sunny summer day. Perfect for a wedding. Good thing it was the day they had chosen.

"Ow! _Grace_!" Lisbon cringed as Van Pelt pulled a bit too hard on her hair.

"Sorry." Van Pelt quickly finished fixing Lisbon's hair.

"Ready?" Annabeth asked, walking into the room.

"Yeah." Van Pelt smiled, putting her stuff away. She gave one final look in the mirror to make sure she looked okay as well. Her dress was dark green, as was Annie's. Van Pelt had been named Maid of Honour and Annie and Melody were Bride's Maids. All their dresses were dark green with spaghetti straps and reached just above the knee.

Lisbon stood up, adjusting her dress and followed Annabeth out of the room to where the limo was waiting outside.

"There you guys are. What took you so long?" Melody asked, scooching over in the limo seat to let the other women in. Melody was now almost six.

"Sorry." Lisbon kissed her head. "Just had to fix a few things." The limo driver started driving as the four passengers eagerly awaited arriving at their destination.

-Mentalist-

The ceremony took place outside, in the garden of a banquet hall. It was sunny and warm with only the occasional cool breeze.

"Can you stop?" Annie whispered irritably to Melody who became squirmish to try and see over everyone's heads while they stood for Lisbon's entrance with James and Tommy walking her down the aisle.

"I can't see." Melody whispered back.

"You'll see her in a minute when she gets up here."

Melody frowned, but stopped fidgeting so much.

"Really, Melody?" Annie tried not to frown or speak too loudly as Melody bumped into her, trying to see Lisbon and Jane while the vows were said.

"I can't-"

Annie stepped to the side and gently nudged Melody forward, allowing her a better view.

"Okay." Melody smiled while Annie rolled her eyes.

-Mentalist-

The reception took place inside the banquet hall, where everything had been decorated in white and different shades of green. The green was still Jane's idea. Lisbon didn't quite understand his obsession with the colour. He had told her it was because of her eyes. What kind of explanation was that? Van Pelt had swooned a bit, claiming it was very sweet and romantic. Lisbon thought it was dumb. She had given up trying to fully understand him. She never would. At least he was cool with her keeping her maiden name. There was no way she was going to work with the title _Mrs_. Jane when _Mr_. Jane was a total pain-in-the-ass consultant.

"Ready?" Jane asked her, taking her hand before their grand entrance.

"Yep." She nodded and smiled, squeezing his hand as the doors opened and they ran into the reception hall to cheers and applause. They waved and bowed before going to their table and taking their seats next to each other. The waiters brought out the appetizers and when all the appetizers were delivered, Jane stood up and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"Hi, everyone." He smiled and waved once the voices had become silent. "Thank you all for coming.

Next to him, Lisbon bit her lip, hoping he didn't say anything too embarrassing or stupid.

"Teresa and I both appreciate you all making it out for our wedding. We hope you have a wonderful time and enjoy the food. We paid enough for it." Jane said teasingly.

"To Teresa and Patrick!" Rigsby called, raising his glass.

"Teresa and Patrick!" The rest of the guests chorused, also raising their glasses and everyone took a swig of their drinks before starting their meals.

-Mentalist-

"Okay. Now that the food is out of the way," The DJ announced once the dirty plates were being cleared. "Can I have the bride and groom on the dance floor for the first dance?"

Lisbon and Jane got up from their seats and made their way onto the currently unoccupied dance floor. Jane took one of Lisbon's hands in his as they stood close together, his other hand placed on her lower back and hers on his shoulder. They swayed gently as their song played.

"You seem to be having fun." Jane said, playfully.

"Oh, then you're losing your touch. This day has been horrible. Possibly one of the worst days of my life." Lisbon grinned.

"Meh." Jane said, dismissively. "You'll warm up to it in a few minutes." He kissed her forehead.

"Will I?" Lisbon raised a brow.

"Of course. No need to be snarky, my dear."

"It's your fault I'm like this." She retorted.

"Well, I'm very pleased that I'm the reason that you're in that lovely dress and we're dancing." Jane chuckled.

"Shut up. You know what I really meant."

"I also think it's cute that you're wearing the tiara I bought you at Disneyland two years ago."

"Yeah, well, Melody made a whole fuss about wanting me to wear it. I think she was going to cry if I didn't."

"And no tears are allowed today unless they're happy tears."

"Of course." Lisbon nodded.

As far as they were both concerned, the song ended too early and they were forced to part. Lisbon then got a dance with both her brothers and soon the dance floor was open to everyone.

"EEEEHHH MACARENA!" Melody sang loudly to the song as she clapped, hopped and then went on with the repetitive dance like everyone else on the dance floor.

"Look at you." Lisbon laughed, dancing beside her. She'd promised Melody a dance, and this was the song Melody had chosen for Lisbon to keep her promise to. Of course, Lisbon felt ridiculous, but it was fun and she had promised.

"Daddy taught me."

Lisbon wasn't sure how she still knew the dance or _why_ she even still knew it.

"Having fun yet?" Jane asked, joining the dance next to her, grinning.

"I think I'm warming up to this." Lisbon chuckled.

"That's good. I'm going to get something to drink. See you when you get off the dance floor." He kissed her cheek and headed off, going to the bar, but only asking for water. Better to not overdo the alcohol. "Hey, James." Jane smiled and waved at Lisbon's second youngest brother as he approached the bar with an empty glass.

"Hey." James smiled back before looking at the bar tender. "Refill on a pop." He handed over his glass.

"Taking it easy on the alcohol as well, I see."

"Really easy. I can't have any at all with my medication." James didn't look at Jane as he took his refilled glass back from the bar tender.

"Oh." Jane blurted. He'd forgotten. Something he didn't normally do.

"It's not that bad." James shrugged and tried to smile reassuringly. "I mean, I was never an alcoholic or anything. I didn't drink it much anyway." They both moved to the side of the bar to be out of other's way.

"I hope you don't need to much to have fun tonight, though." Jane tried to lighten the mood a little.

James laughed. "Not at all. It's been a wonderful day."

"Glad to hear it." Jane smiled and then took a sip of his water. "Teresa still complained. She always does that."

James laughed. "Always." He agreed.

"Have you gotten on the dance floor yet?" Jane inquired.

"I did a few times." James nodded.

"Try getting on there a few more times." Jane suggested, glancing back at the dance floor. The song had changed, but Melody had charmed Lisbon into still dancing with her. "I know it's probably not the easiest thing for you but, I'm sure Melody would appreciate it."

"I do plan on it." James smiled. He seemed hesitant about something. What, Jane wasn't sure.

"Something on your mind?" Jane tilted his head.

"Uh. Y-no." James stumbled then took a deep breath and with more firmness said, "No. There isn't."

"I detect a lie." Jane stated.

"Like your sister, you are a horrible liar."

"I'll try and take that as a compliment."

"Teresa doesn't." Jane smirked.

"Understandable." James nodded.

"Come on. Out with it. What's on your mind? You can tell me. I promise I won't judge."

James shook his head. "It's nothing. I forgot already."

"Lies."

"Can you at least _pretend_ I'm telling the truth?"

Jane gave a suspicious look, deciding if the untold thought might be important enough to force out. "No. No, I can't pretend that."

"You'll have to." James said as he tried to walk away.

"Nuh-uh." Jane reached out and grabbed his arm as gently as possible. "You don't get to walk away like that. We're family."

"Only by marriage."

"Still counts."

James rolled his eyes, a gesture that eerily resembled his older sisters.

"You worried that I'm going to mess everything up with Teresa? Make her miserable?"

James laughed. "I think we're all past that now. If I had that worry, you wouldn't have gotten through the ceremony. Tommy would back me up."

"True." Jane nodded. "So, then this has something to do with Melody."

James shook his head. "This wouldn't be the time or place."

"If you're worried, it doesn't matter the time or place."

"Look. I just-…" James took a deep breath. "I know you care about them. Teresa and Melody. And I…I'm not saying you're a bad person or anything, but I don't want them to be…filling in. Tommy and I know about your other family, as you probably guessed…"

Jane nodded. "I understand."

"I'm not asking you to forget them. That wouldn't be fair."

"I know. I get it. I thought about that exact problem myself. Teresa is a completely different person from my first wife. Trust me. Angela wouldn't have ever had anything to do with a gun. I didn't think I'd ever have a life after they were gone. I had just given up, content to follow them in death, but for some reason I didn't. And out of some amazing coincidence, I met Teresa and my life got a little bit better after that. As much as I continued to shut people out, Teresa and the team included, I still felt accepted. I still never really moved on, though. All I thought about was killing the man who murdered my family and I kept telling myself 'I can move on after that. After that.' This went on for years. And, I don't know." Jane shrugged. "I had started having feelings for Teresa, but I had convinced myself I couldn't move on. It wouldn't ever be right. It wouldn't feel right."

"Do you have him yet?"

"No."

"So how did all this," James gestured around the room, "come about?"

"Someone threw down a little joker in my card game of a life and things just changed. For the better, of course."

"Of course." James smiled and nodded. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Being so honest and telling me."

"I told you. We're family."

"Can I ask you a question now?" Jane asked.

"Shoot." James shrugged.

"Why'd you name her Melody? It's not that important for me to know, but I'm nosy."

"I don't know. Originally I was planning on naming her Erica."

"With the same middle name?"

"Yeah. I was gonna use mom's name, but Annie already got that privilage. I hadn't minded the name Melody. I thought it was nice, but I didn't think it's what I wanted."

"When'd you change your mind?"

"When she was born. I looked at her and Erica didn't feel right. The only name I could think of that fit was Melody."

"It's a good thing you did. I can't imagine her being named anything besides Melody. It fits her."

"Yeah, I agree." James nodded.

"Daddy!" Melody ran over to them. "Daddy, come on! I want to go ask the DJ for the chicken dance song!" Melody took her father's hand and pulled.

"Gentle." Jane told her.

Melody stopped pulling, but still held her father's hand. "Please?"

"I'm coming." James smiled. He looked back at Patrick. "See you later."

"Yep." Jane nodded as Melody and James headed over to the DJ. And now it was time to find Lisbon again. That's where the real fun was.

-Mentalist-

"Teresa?"

Lisbon turned and looked at Melody, who was looking a little tired and clutched an almost empty glass in both her hands. "Yes?"

"Do you know where Daddy is? I'm tired."

"No. Maybe he went to the bathroom. I'm sure he'll turn up." Lisbon glanced at the clock before crouching down to be at eye level with Melody. Nine-thirty? Lisbon was surprised Melody wasn't already passed out on the dance floor. Keeping up with the girl was a challenge that even Jane had trouble with.

"When are you leaving for your honeymoon?" Melody asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon. We'll be back before you and Daddy get back from Chicago, though."

"Why are you going to the moon? And why does everyone think there's honey there? Are you taking a spaceship?"

Lisbon laughed softly. "We're not going to the moon. There isn't any honey there. A honeymoon is a trip that married people take after they get married."

"Why?"

"So they can spend lots of time together without worrying about being busy with other things."

"Oh."

Lisbon sniffed the air. There was a familiar smell, that wasn't always good. "Melody?"

"Mhm?"

"What are you drinking?" Lisbon looked at the glass and took it from Melody. Her heart skipped a beat in terror as she recognised the liquid inside. She forced herself to appear calm on the outside. Freaking Melody out was a very bad idea.

"It tastes like juice." Melody said. "But different. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy."

"Where did you get it?"

"It was Uncle Tommy's, but he left it on the table to go dance. And I was thirsty."

"How much did you have?"

"Only some sips. I didn't really like it at first because it tasted kind of funny."

Lisbon was just about horrified. "Sweetie, can you do me a favour?"

"Yeah."

"Come with me." Lisbon took Melody's hand, placed the glass on a table, and led her to the edge of the dance floor. "Can you walk straight on that line for me?"

Melody gave Lisbon a weird look. "Um, okay…" She did as she was told. She only wobbled once.

Lisbon breathed a little easier. Melody probably hadn't had that much. "Good job." Lisbon smiled.

"Thank you? I could be a tightrope walker!" Melody smiled.

"Maybe." Lisbon kissed her head. "You feeling okay? Not dizzy or sick?"

Melody shook her head. "I'm still tired."

"Okay."

"There you are, Melody." It seemed James had found them.

"Daddy." Melody smiled. "Can we go home? I'm tired."

"Yeah. I was just going to tell you we were going home."

"Just letting you know." Lisbon told James quietly. "She had some…of Tommy's _drink_."

"What do y-" James expression exploded into shock as he looked down at Melody.

"She's fine." Lisbon quickly reassured him. "She passed the line test-"

"That was a test?" Melody's brows knit together.

"And she says she's feeling fine." Lisbon continued.

"Okay." James sighed. "We'll see how the rest of tonight goes. Anyway. We'll all be heading out. Tommy and Annie are staying a bit later. He has an extra key to our apartment. We'll say goodnight to everyone and head out. Thanks for a wonderful day. I had lots of fun."

"Me, too!" Melody chimed in.

"You're welcome." Lisbon smiled and gave them each a hug.

"Have fun on your honeymoon." James said as he picked up Melody and they headed off to say goodnight to everyone else."

"I will. Thank you." Lisbon waved back. She was still a little worried about Melody, but she new that James would look after her. He was her father, afterall. She turned and went in search of her new husband.

* * *

**Author's Note: That's it for now. Thank you all for reading. I hope you like it. Please leave a review.**


	5. Win Or Lose

**Author's Note: Here's chapter five! Sorry for the wait, this chapter ended up longer than I expected. Thank you to AngryLittlePrincess and Pen99 for their reviews of the last chapter. I hope you guys enjoy wthis chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Mentalist.**

* * *

Lisbon sighed heavily, looking at the mud that had dried in the backseat of her car.

"You know," Jane said, wrapping his arms around her from behind. "This could have just been James' problem if you hadn't been so insistent on carpooling."

"Shut up. Saves money from gas."

"Spends more time cleaning." Jane teased, handing her a car brush.

Lisbon just grunted in reply and began to rub at the mud. "Well I wasn't expecting Melody to get pushed into a mud puddle."

"She's Melody. Of course she was going to get pushed into a mud puddle. And it didn't even slow her down." Jane chuckled. "On the bright side, her team still won."

"Too bad that win doesn't come with a free interior car cleaning."

Jane laughed. "And what have we learned?"

"You're really unsupportive of me and you don't care about the environment?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I love you. You just like to pretend I don't so you can blame things on me."

"I don't have to find ways to blame things on you. Almost everything _is_ your fault."

"I could just go inside and not help you clean _your_ car. It's not my car, not my problem."

"Hey!" Lisbon protested when Jane pretended to be leaving.

"Oh, don't be angry, my beautiful wife. I'll help you clean your car."

"Oh, dear husband, aren't you just the most chivalrous man that I ever did meet." Lisbon rolled her eyes sarcastically.

Jane just laughed again. "I suppose that I must be." He kissed Lisbon's cheek. "Lets get this car cleaned before Melody's gymnastics competition on Saturday. I still can't believe how early they start those things."

"You're just not a morning person." Lisbon bumped his hip with hers as she shook one of the car mats out.

"My experience has shown me that you aren't either, my dear."

-Mentalist-

"Five more minutes." Jane murmured, hugging Lisbon tighter and burrowing into her soft hair as she reached out to try and silence the alarm clock.

"Five more minutes." Lisbon agreed, hitting the snooze button. It only felt like five seconds before the alarm went off again.

"Five more minutes." Jane mumbled.

"That's what you said five minutes ago." was Lisbon's groggy reply as she propped herself up on one elbow and reached over to hit the '_off_' button on the alarm clock. "Come on. Get your lazy butt out of bed. Or at the very least, let go of me so I can get up. One of us has to be mature."

"But it's so cozy." Jane complained in a very childlike manner.

"You're whinier than Melody ever was." Lisbon grinned.

"Ouch. There goes my ego."

Lisbon just laughed. "_Come on_."

"Fine." Jane sighed and let her go, reluctantly.

"Thank you." Lisbon scooted off her side of the bed and headed to the bathroom with a change of clothes for a shower.

It wasn't that long before they were both on their way to pick up Melody and James.

"I'm beginning to think that your carpooling idea is just another way for you to assert control in life." Jane commented as they turned onto James' and Melody's street.

"It is not." Lisbon huffed. "You know, for someone who hates shrinks so much, you like to pretend you're mine an awful lot. God, for _one day_, Patrick-_one day_-can you please not do the whole psychiatrist thing?" Lisbon pulled up in front of the building and parked on the curb, waiting for Melody and James.

"It truly bothers you _that much_." Jane hadn't quite asked it like a question.

"_Yes_."

"I'm only teasing you, you know." Jane placed one of his hands over hers on the steering wheel. "I don't mean anything by it."

"Yeah, I know." Lisbon replied passively as she looked past Jane through the passenger side window. The apartment building door opened.

"Teresa?"

"Yeah?"

"Look at me?"

Lisbon shifted her gaze to meet Jane's. "Yeah?"

"Can I have a kiss?"

Lisbon just raised a brow.

"_Please_? Just a little kiss." He pouted slightly.

Lisbon leaned forward and quickly placed a kiss to his lips.

"Thank you." Jane smiled.

"Whatever." Lisbon sighed as she unlocked the door for Melody and James.

"Morning." James greeted as he opened the door and let the now eight year old Melody in first.

"M'r'ning." Melody echoed tiredly as she climbed in and took a seat, barely managing to get her seat belt on before her eyes closed and she drifted back to sleep. Her hair was in a high and neat bun, that James had taught himself how to do, and she wore some black sweatpants with sneakers and a sweater Jane had bought her. The sweater was red with her last name printed across the back in white with some blue stars.

"I see she still enjoys that sweater." Jane noticed.

"Yeah." James shut the door and put his own seat belt on after fixing Melody's gym bag in the empty seat. "It's still about four sizes too big for her, too."

"She'll grow into it." Jane dismissed as Lisbon began to drive again.

"We have plenty of time." Lisbon said. "She has to be signed in by eight and it's just seven now."

"They should really make these things start later." James sighed. "How do they expect kids to function when they have to get up _this_ early? I could hardly get her to sleep last night. She kept changing her mind on what bodysuit she wanted. And then her stomach hurt because she was nervous."

"How'd you get her to bed?" Jane inquired, sort of amused.

"I told her that I'd make her redo all her math homework to clear her head. She practically fainted."

Lisbon bit her lip to keep from laughing.

-Mentalist-

James grabbed Melody's gym bag from the backseat and Jane shook Melody gently.

"Mnh. No." Melody swatted lazily at Jane's hands.

"We're here." Jane told her. "We're at the competition. We have to sign you in. Don't you want to sign in?"

"Yeah." Melody yawned.

"Good. Come on." Jane undid her seat belt and helped her out of the car. "Good girl." He took her hand as they walked into the building and signed her in, getting her number. It was busier than they had anticipated. Kids ranging from Melody's age to late teens with their parents, coaches and others all bustling around and talking. The three quickly found their way into the stadium portion of the building, finding the area where the participants could get ready and claiming an available space. "You okay?" Jane asked, seeing Melody's expression.

Melody nodded quickly.

"Do you want some water?" James offered her a water bottle that he'd pulled from her gym bag.

"Thank you." Melody took the bottle and drank some water.

"There you are, Melody!"

"Hi, Miranda!" Melody waved at her coach.

"James, Teresa, Patrick." Miranda greeted the adults cheerily. She was a slender woman in her early thirties with light brown hair and baby blue eyes. The three adults returned her greeting before Miranda knelt in front of Melody. "Okay, sweetie. This is going to go different from your other competitions. It's a little bit bigger than the other ones you've been in, but that's okay. You did really well in the other ones and you can do really well in this one. You'll hear your name called when it's time for you to practice and I will be out there too for your practice. Remember what we worked on in practice on Thursday. I've got to go prep Celia, but I'll be out there for your practice. Do your stretching." With that, Miranda headed off.

-Mentalist-

"They're sitting…above us?" Lisbon's brows furrowed as she read the text that Van Pelt had sent her. "It says 'look up'."

James, Melody, Jane and Lisbon all looked up at the elevated seats that overlooked the waiting area and arena to see the others smiling and waving at them.

Melody waved back, excitedly. They were all wearing white shirts with the words 'Go Melody' written on them.

"You have your own fan club." Lisbon smiled. Sadly, Sarah hadn't made it out. Everyone had seen less of her since she and Rigsby split up a year ago.

The announcer let everyone know that the competition would begin in five minutes.

"Come on, Melody." Lisbon told her. "I have you get your makeup on you."

Melody frowned. That was her least favourite part.

Lisbon sat cross-legged with Melody in front of her. "Stand very still." She instructed and Melody obeyed. Her alternative, however, was getting poked in the eye by accident and that was less appealing than the makeup process. Especially since it had happened to her before when she wouldn't stop fidgeting. Just some eye shadow and eyeliner was enough, so Lisbon never put any more than was needed. "Ta-da."

Melody opened her eyes and blinked a few times, getting used to the makeup all over again. They all got comfortable to watch the other competitors from Melody's age division. Apparently, not only was Melody the youngest in her division as she barely made it in by a week with the age restriction, she was also the last of her division to sign in. That left her the last performance of her age group.

Miranda had a few last words with Melody before her name was called. Melody wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or throw up more. There were so many people! Plus, she'd seen reporters and camera crews. James had made the mistake of letting Melody know that Annie and Tommy would watch her on TV in Chicago. It had been intended to help her relax, but only made her more nervous. She made her way to the mat, taking deep breaths and trying to focus.

"She's going to be fine." Jane whispered to Lisbon, who had grabbed one of his hands in both of hers and was holding tightly. He rubbed her back with his free hand. At these competitions, Jane was never who was more nervous: Melody or Lisbon. It was a very close call.

"It's dangerous." Was Lisbon's response, as it always was.

"This coming from a woman that deals with criminals for a living."

"That's not the point. Shush. Her routine is going to start." Lisbon continued to hold his hand tightly.

Watching Lisbon watch Melody's gymnastic routines was incredibly amusing. She had one of those horrified expressions of a young child watching their first serious horror film at a sleepover. The type of expression that said '_it's so horrifying, but I can't look away! I can't! Look! Away!_' as the person would proceed to watch the film through spread fingers, like that would make it less scary. The only difference was that Lisbon's fingers were all painfully wrapped around Jane's poor hand.

Melody took a deep breath as she heard her music starting and began her routine. She'd started off a little shaky, but once she got going she was much better. Her nerves took a backseat to her task at hand. Lisbon let go of Jane's hand as Melody's routine ended and they all applauded and cheered. Melody took her little bow and then made her way off the performance stage and onto the regular floor, hurrying back to her waiting family and coach.

"That was awesome, Melody!" James said as Melody ran into his awaiting arms and he kissed her head. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Thank you." Melody was still panting from all the energy she had spent on her performance.

"Good job." Lisbon kissed her cheek when it was her turn to give Melody a hug.

"Thank you." Melody smiled. "When do I get to see what I got?" She asked Miranda.

"They're tallying the scores now, like the other competitions. They'll say in a moment." Miranda told her.

James handed Melody her sweater to wear and she zipped the oversized item of clothing up as they heard her name announced again, her name and picture appearing on the big screen hanging on the wall. Melody held her breath as her score appeared next to her picture and then it faded to show the final standings.

"You got third. Good job." James hugged her again.

Melody smiled, a little disappointed, though. "But…I wanted first."

"You can't win everything." Miranda told her. "But third is very good for your first big competition. Be proud. We just need to work on your starts."

"You'll do even better at the next one." Jane patted Melody's shoulder.

"When's that?"

"Not for a little while." Miranda said. "You need to practice between competitions. You can get a snack now, though. The other age groups have to go and then they hand out the trophies to everyone after."

"I am hungry."

"I bet." Miranda poked Melody's nose.

"Tell Celia that I say good luck, too."

"I will." Miranda nodded.

Lisbon texted Van Pelt while Melody got her shoes on to let them know that they were going to get a snack if they wanted to meet them and got a quick reply that they'd be out there.

"What do you want?" James asked after Melody got her hugs from everyone else.

Melody looked around. "I don't see anywhere to get food."

"I think they're further down." Jane said, picking Melody up. The group walked a little further down the hall until they came upon some food venders.

"Can I have a cupcake and fries?" Melody asked, seeing a fry place and pastry vender next to each other.

"How about a salad instead of fries?" James suggested.

Melody wrinkled her nose. "I don't want a salad, Daddy."

"You need something better than fries and a cupcake."

"Fries with gravy and a cupcake?" Melody tried.

Jane laughed as James shook his head.

"Pogo's and fries?" Melody tried again.

"Okay." James sighed. Better than just fries.

Melody smiled. "And orange juice. I like orange juice."

-Mentalist-

"Look how big it is!" Melody held up her trophy that was about half as tall as her.

"It's almost as big as you." James laughed.

"How would we carry it if it were any bigger?" Lisbon smiled.

"It's not that heavy." Melody said.

"Have you thought about where you want to go for your celebration dinner, or do you not want to go anywhere?"

"No, I want to go!" Melody told him as they walked out to meet the others. "Can we have chicken?"

"If that's what you want." Lisbon told her.

"I want chicken." Melody nodded.

"Chicken it is." James said. They met up with the others and made plans to meet at the chosen restaurant before heading out to their vehicles.

Lisbon popped the trunk so James could put Melody's gym bag in and then she leaned down to get Melody's trophy.

"But…" Melody stepped back with her trophy, pouting.

"It's too big to carry around anywhere. We have to put it in the trunk so it doesn't get damaged or stolen." Lisbon explained.

Melody looked at her trophy sadly, sighed and handed it over to be put in the trunk. She got into the back seat and buckled her seat belt, James sitting next to her with Jane and Lisbon in the front.

"Can we have the radio?" Melody asked.

"Sure." Jane turned on the radio and picked a random station. No one really liked the selection of music the first one had, so he channel surfed.

"Oh! This! Leave it."

"What's the word?" James looked at her.

"Please." Melody added.

"That's it." James nodded.

"You like this song?" Lisbon asked. It was kind of old by now.

"Yeah." Melody bobbed her head along to the beat. "I got a pocket, got a pocket full'a sunshine…"

It didn't take them very long to get the restaurant. Cho got there first, then them and finally Rigsby with Van Pelt and Ben. They entered the restaurant together, it wasn't packed but there were quite a few people there.

"Table for eight, please." Jane said to the hostess behind the podium.

She nodded and jotted something down before grabbing enough menus and showing them all to their table. "Your server will be with you in a moment." She told them after handing out their menus. Melody got to sit at the head of the table, with her father on the right, Jane and Lisbon on the left.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom. You coming as well, Lisbon?" Van Pelt asked.

"Yeah." Lisbon nodded. "Melody, do you need to use the bathroom?"

"No."

"Okay. We'll be right back. If the waiter comes while I'm gone, I want a coffee." Lisbon said.

"I'd like some lemonade." Van Pelt added before the pair went off.

A phone began to ring, making Rigsby jump. He checked his caller ID. "I'll be right back. It's Sarah." He got up to take the call somewhere a little quieter.

"Daddy? What's a Shirley Temple?" Melody asked, looking at one of the plastic drink menus that had been sitting on the table.

"It's a fruit drink." James answered.

"Is it good?"

"Yes."

"Can I have one?"

"Sure."

"Melody gets everything." Benjamin frowned.

"Do not." Melody protested.

"Do so."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah."

"No."

"Yeah."

"N-"

"Please stop arguing." Cho interrupted in his ever so stoic manner.

Just then, their waiter approached. He was in his early twenties with dark hair and a nice smile. Probably in college or university, Jane assumed. "Hi, I'm Sam and I'll be your server today. Can I start you all off with something to drink?"

"Go ahead Melody." James encouraged.

"Can I have a Shirley Temple?"

"Yes you can." Sam jotted her order. "They're really good. Did you come from dance?"

"No. I was at a gymnastics competition."

"Oh. Sorry. My niece does ballet and I saw the bun, so I thought dance. And you, sir?" He looked to James.

"Uh…just a water, please. My sister's in the bathroom, but she wants a coffee."

Sam nodded and added that to his list.

"I'll have some tea." Jane smiled.

"I want a soda." Ben told Sam.

"Grace wanted a lemonade." Melody remembered.

"Just a water for me as well." Cho said.

"Make that two sodas." Jane said. "Our other missing friend will want one."

"Okay. So, I'll come back in a moment so you can look over the menus a bit more."

"Wait." Melody said. "I didn't get any crayons for my menu."

"I did." Ben grinned, opening the plastic around his crayons.

Melody stuck her tongue out at him.

"You still have goop on your face." Ben stuck out his tongue back.

"Daddy." Melody looked at James.

"We'll get the makeup off your face." He told her.

Jane grabbed Lisbon's bag that she'd left by the foot of her chair and it didn't take him long to find some wet wipes Lisbon had for removing makeup.

"I'll get you some crayons." Sam smiled before leaving.

"Thank you." Melody called as Jane began to wipe at the eye shadow on her face.

"No wonder it's not full out here. Everyone's waiting in the line for the ladies washroom." Lisbon huffed as she sat down.

"Wouldn't have been such a long line if some women could figure out the real reason for toilet paper." Van Pelt took her seat. "It's not to clog up half the toilets."

"Ew." Melody wrinkled her nose.

"Agreed." Lisbon nodded.

"Sorry that took so long." Rigsby joined them again.

"Everything cool?" Cho asked.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

"Okay." Sam reappeared. "I have the two waters, two sodas and the lemonade. I'll be right back with your other drinks." He placed the drinks on the table. "But, before I go"-he pulled a little pouch of crayons from his pocket-"I got you some crayons. Have fun."

"Thank you." Melody smiled brightly, accepting the drawing utensils.

"You're welcome." Sam looked at Jane and James. "She's adorable."

"Thank you." They both replied automatically at the same time.

It took a moment for them to realise what had just transpired as Sam walked away. Lisbon was the first to start laughing, followed closely by everyone else except Ben and Melody who didn't understand.

"What did…I miss!?" Lisbon forced out between giggles that were quickly evolving to suffocating laughter.

"Nothing." Jane shook his head. "Melody just needed her makeup…removed." He looked down at Lisbon's bag that he'd reached for. It wasn't a very feminine appearing bag. It could just as easily been a man's bag. And James' comment '_we'll_ get the makeup off' as opposed to '_I _will' and Jane had been the one to clean the makeup off. "Oh."

"Oh?" Lisbon was still laughing, wiping at some tears. "What happened?"

"The waiter thinks that Jane and James are a couple." Cho pointed out.

That only got Lisbon to laugh harder. "You…need to tell…me what happened…later." She couldn't stop laughing and her sides were hurting.

"I don't know why you think it's so funny, Teresa." Jane said, a little flustered for once. He had nothing against same sex couples, but of all the people anyone were to pair him with…his second youngest brother in law? And why was Lisbon so amused? That wasn't fair. Maybe it really was his karma biting him in the butt. "If people are all going to think I'm into men, how does that reflect on you?"

Lisbon nearly fell over laughing, clearly unaffected by Jane's comment.

"I want to know the joke." Melody pouted.

"I don't think you'll understand the joke." James told her.

"I can understand things. Tell me."

James looked at her for a moment. "Okay. Here's the joke."

Melody listened intently.

"When do teachers carry bird seed?"

Melody furrowed her brows. "When?"

"When they have a parrot-teacher conference."

Melody giggled. "Parrot-teacher conference."

-Mentalist-

Lisbon sighed tiredly as they closed the door behind them. "That was a long day." she proceeded to remove her shoes.

"But a fun day, still." Jane followed suit.

"I still can't believe that the waiter thought you and James were together." She chuckled.

"Are you ever going to get over that?" Jane shook his head.

"Nope." Lisbon smiled. "I think it's one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Though, I would sincerely hope it weren't true. Don't cheat on me with my brother. _Any_ of my brothers."

"No worries. They're not my type."

"And what's your type?"

Jane pretended to think. "Hhmmm…I think I would have to say that my type is…Teresa Lisbon."

"It better be." She smiled and gave him a kiss.

* * *

**Author's Note: That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review and let me know what you thought.**


	6. Stay

**Author's Note: Here's chapter six! I will warn you all now that this chapter is a little bit intense and sad. I don't think you'll sob uncontrollably or anything, but it's still a little sad. Now you have all been warned, so you can't say I didn't warn you.**

**Disclaimer: Mentalist is not owned by me.**

* * *

It had felt much longer than a week since Melody's gymnastic competition, but in reality, it wasn't even a full week. The case they had caught on Monday seemed ordinary enough, but somehow had snowballed into some serious drama. It was Friday and the case was closed, but no one was even in the mood for case closed pizza. Well, except Melody who had been fortunate enough to not have been around for the case. She had insisted on visiting Friday, but things were much different than she had pictured them being. She sat on Jane's couch in the bullpen playing her video games. She frowned as her character accidentally ran into some spikes, using up her last life. Stupid game. She had said to go left, not right! Who needed stupid video games anyway? She could go play with Teresa, maybe cheer her up. Lisbon had picked Melody up from school by herself, which was odd. It was the first time ever that Jane hadn't accompanied her. Lisbon said that he was busy finishing up their case. Melody hadn't seen him all day, until she saw him walk into Lisbon's office a while ago. She looked up to see if she could join them, but the scene inside her aunt's office didn't seem very pleasant. Whatever Lisbon and Jane were talking about, they weren't happy. Melody pretended to be engrossed in her video game as Jane stormed out of Lisbon's office. Melody waited a moment to make sure he was really gone before she closed her game, tucking it in her backpack and hopping off the couch to talk to her aunt.

"Teresa?" Melody asked as she walked into Lisbon's office.

Lisbon looked over at her and smiled. "Yes? Do you need something?"

"No…" Melody shook her head. She glanced nervously out the window where the sun was approaching the horizon before looking back at her aunt, returning her smile. "I just…wanted a hug."

"I think I can manage that."

Melody hurried around Lisbon's desk for her hug.

Lisbon placed Melody on her lap and hugged her tightly.

"Is everything okay, Teresa?" Melody asked, holding on to her aunt tightly.

"Yes." Lisbon answered. "Everything is fine."

"Then why do you look sad?"

"I just have some things on my mind."

"Is that why you and Patrick are fighting?"

Lisbon wasn't sure what to say to that. She adjusted the little pink plastic headband that held back Melody's bangs. "You don't worry about stuff like that. Everything is going to be fine."

"But I don't want you to be sad."

"I appreciate your concern but, this isn't the end of the world. You don't have to worry about me."

"I promise to keep it a secret if you want."

"No." Lisbon smiled. "You don't have to do that. It's nothing you need to worry about."

"Okay." Melody agreed reluctantly, letting go of her aunt.

Lisbon put Melody down. "Do you want a snack or something?"

"I'm okay. But…I told Grace that I'd help her…with stuff."

"Okay. Well, you know where I am if you need anything."

"Yeah." Melody smiled and headed out of Lisbon's office, walking towards the bullpen. When she saw that Lisbon's attention wasn't on her, she quickly changed course and bolted towards the elevator, but headed up the stairs instead. She was breathing a bit heavier than normal when she reached the door of Jane's attic room and tried to open it, it didn't budge. Locked. She tried knocking. There was no reply. Not even a scuffling from behind the door to let her know someone was going to open the door. She tried knocking a bit louder in case he was asleep or something. When she still got no reply, she yelled through the door. "I know you're in there, Patrick. This door locks from the inside. I'm eight and I'm not _stupid_." This time there was a little bit of scuffling before the click of a lock and the door slid open a bit so Jane could poke his head out.

"You need something?" He seemed calm enough…on the outside.

"Yes."

"What do you need?"

"Someone to tell me what's going on that I can't know."

"Excuse me?" Before Jane could protest anything any further, Melody slipped through the door and shoved past him into the attic room. "Hey!"

Melody turned to face him. "Why are you and Teresa sad?" She demanded.

Jane cast a look at the door. It was at least an inch of metal and it had failed to keep out an eight year old. But, maybe that was more his fault…

"Why wasn't there any case closed pizza? There's _always_ case closed pizza. But no one wants any today. And no one is happy. And no one will tell me anything. And everyone says it's okay, it's fine. It's _not_ okay! It's _not_ fine! You _have_ to tell me. Teresa won't even tell me." Melody's eyes began to fill with tears. "You're not going to leave, are you? Teresa's not going to leave, right? I don't want you to go. I want you to stay. I want everyone to stay."

Jane knelt down so he could be at eye level with Melody. "What makes you think we'd go anywhere?"

"Mommy left. Because she was sad because she didn't want me. Sarah left because she was sad, too. At least she plays with Ben. I don't want everyone to be sad. I want everyone to be happy because people leave when they're sad so that they can be happy, but I want everyone to be happy _here_. I want you and Teresa to stay." Now she was just about sobbing.

Jane brushed a few stray hairs off Melody's forehead. "We're not going anywhere, Melody. Especially not without you. Come'ere." He hugged her tightly. "Teresa and I are just a little upset with each other right now. We just need to calm down. Like when you're upset and we let you calm down. You don't _leave_, you just take some time to be with yourself and calm down. That's what's happening. It has nothing to do with you, and we're certainly not going to leave you." He patted her head gently as she cried into his shoulder.

"What can I do if you all leave? Daddy's still sick. Is he going to get better, Patrick?"

"I don't know. I'm not a doctor."

"Uncle Tommy and Annabeth aren't even here."

"We're _not leaving_, Melody." Jane reminded her. "I promise. We're still going to be here tomorrow and the day after. And the day after that. The month after that and all the others after that."

"You're staying?"

"Yes."

"Both of you?"

"Yes."

"Good." Melody burrowed her face into his shoulder.

-Mentalist-

Eventually, Jane got Melody to calm down and she was able to go back downstairs, but unable to make him go down with her. She did, however, make him promise to talk to Lisbon. Before she left, she made a point to ask Lisbon to talk to Jane, which did surprise Lisbon. Melody was disappointed with the response of 'I'll think about it' but accepted it since it was better than a flat out no.

Jane waited until he knew that the rest of the team would be gone and the building would be basically empty before he went to see Lisbon. He was glad to see she was still in her office, since that eliminated the possibility of him having to look for her. Jane walked cautiously into her office, letting the door shut gently behind him. Except for the increased grip on her pen, Lisbon made no move to acknowledge his presence. He cleared his throat. She still ignored him.

"Teresa."

"Yes?" She said coldly, not even looking up from her papers.

"Can we talk?"

"No." She looked at him now, pen placed to the side. He could see she was angry and upset. "Quite frankly, I'm still mad at you. And the more I think about it, the less point I see in us 'talking'. You always lie to me anyway. Oh, no wait. That's right. You 'wouldn't call that lying', would you? No. You prefer to call them half truths and other things that might just slip your mind, even if they could be really important. Well, thanks. One of your little forgotten topics damn near killed me today, Jane. I really appreciated that. If you wanted me gone, you could have just gotten divorce papers like normal people. You could have just _left_. I can't stop you. But, whatever. If you wanted the place to yourself, congratulations, you got it. I'm not going home tonight because I'd rather get something done than be cramped in there with a man that thought it'd be fun to gamble with my life."

"Teresa-"

"No. If you say one wise crack about how I'm endangering myself all the time, I think I'll just punch you. I _get_ to gamble with my own life if that's what I want because it's _my life_. You don't see me throwing your life around like it's worthless just because it's not me."

"You really think that's how I view things? You believe that I think your life is worthless, just because it's not mine? That hurts, Teresa. And I'm not kidding." Jane said very seriously.

"Who can tell with you?" Lisbon stood up abruptly and stormed over to him. "All you do is trick people and joke around. Did you hypnotize me, too? Make me do something stupider than what I already do because of you? Was that for fun too?"

"_No_." Jane growled. That was a very mean accusation for her to make. "I understand that you'd be angry with me for not telling you certain things. And I understand that you're upset because of what happened, but don't you _ever_ accuse me of something like that. _Ever_. That has no basis. I wouldn't do that to you. I l-"

"Don't you dare tell me you love me. The best part about this entire situation, is that I could tell that you weren't telling me something and I didn't want to believe it because I wanted to believe that you'd tell me everything. So, I left it. And I nearly died. If Cho hadn't grabbed my vest and pulled me out of the way, that bullet would have been fatal. Why? Because, of course, Mr. Patrick Jane can't tell his wife the whole truth. That he had hatched his own stupid plan to lure the suspect out, which pissed the suspect off and almost killed me. I'm not even angry I got shot at. That's not why I have a problem. It's because you didn't tell me until later, after everything was done, and then said 'thank god you're okay'. Yeah. It have all been thanks to god, 'cause it sure as hell was no thanks to you." She wiped at the tears that were spilling down her cheeks.

Jane was now trying to curb the new anger and his own tears that the argument was causing. One of them had to at least seem calm and that definitely wasn't going to be Lisbon. Angry tension passed between them as they stared at each other in silence. "If I start to talk, can you please let me finish instead of interrupting me?"

"Whatever."

"I never wanted to put you in danger, that's why I made a plan for him to come to us. You all said you were going to the friend's house to follow up on some things. I didn't think you were going to go back to his place, too. I'm sorry that I put you in extra, unneeded danger. I never meant to. I never intentionally would, and I know doing it unintentionally isn't really better, but I still feel it's important that you know that I didn't _want_ that to happen. I never have. I almost lost it when they told me you nearly died and I was angry at myself. I'm disappointed and truly hurt that you really think you're life means so little to me, and that I'd ever hypnotize you for my own fun. I don't want you gone. Nothing would be right if you were gone. I'd be devastated, Melody would be absolutely crushed, the team wouldn't ever recover, and I don't even want to think about the impact it would have on your brothers."

Lisbon sniffled, crossing her arms over her chest and looked away.

"Come on." Jane put his hands on Lisbon's shoulders and she tensed a bit. He stepped forward quickly and wrapped her in a tight hug.

"No." She tried to push back, but he wouldn't let go. Damn it. She wanted to be mad at him. He deserved it. He did.

"I'm not leaving this office unless it's with you. And you're not leaving unless it's with me." Jane whispered, burying his face in her hair.

"You have to stop lying to me." Lisbon rested her forehead on his shoulder. "You have to start telling me _full truths_. No more of this guessing."

"Okay." Jane agreed.

"Good." Lisbon pulled away and nodded.

"Lets go home, now. We can even stop by the grocery store and I'll pick you up that ice cream you love so much."

"The grocery store?" Lisbon wiped at her tears. "I look terrible. I don't want to go to the grocery store."

"You look wonderful."

"I have mascara smeared all over my face."

"And you still look beautiful." Jane kissed her head. "But I'll go in by myself, if that'll soothe your mind. Now lock up your office, and lets go."

Lisbon quickly grabbed her things and locked up her office.

Jane laced his fingers through hers as they walked to the elevator and waited once the button was pushed.

"Hey, Patrick?"

"Yeah?" Jane looked at her, glad she'd returned to using his first name. He preferred that.

"I'm sorry." She continued when his brow furrowed. "For when I was yelling at you. About the hypnotism thing and saying you don't care…I just…I'm sorry."

He smiled gently. "I forgive you. And, I love you." He leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

"I love you, too." The elevator pinged its arrival and they got in. "I have to admit. I thought you would have left a long time ago and I wouldn't see you until tomorrow."

"No, my dear." Jane pushed the button for the ground level. "I'm staying. The only place I'm going is home with you."

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**Author's Note: Aw, cause they love each other. Please leave a review!**


	7. Daddies' Girl

**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter, but I hope you all still enjoy it. My next chapter updates will be a little while because of life, but I will have them up as soon as I can. :)**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

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"Melody, Daddy's on the phone." Lisbon held out the phone that was on her desk to her niece.

Melody jumped off the office couch where she and Jane had been reading a book and hurried over to take the phone from her aunt. "Hi, Daddy!" Lisbon let Melody sit on her lap as she listened. "Yeah. I'm good. Patrick and me were reading….Mhm. I got a new book. In the book, the girl has a pet elephant. Can I have a pet elephant too, Daddy?…We could keep it outside…Can I have one at my birthday then?…My birthday. Daddy, you remember my birthday!…I turn nine! Daddy!…Well, that wasn't nice! I thought you forgot." Melody huffed and pouted. "Really? Okay. Are you having fun at work?…I say hi to Sally back…Mhm…Okay…Love you too, Daddy. Bye." Melody put the phone back on the hook.

"You're birthday isn't until October. It's only late July." Lisbon kissed Melody's head.

"Don't you have to book elephants ahead of time?" Melody inquired.

Lisbon laughed. "I have no idea. What'd Daddy say? Is he going to get you an elephant?"

"He said he'd think about it."

"He'll have to see if any are available." Lisbon smiled.

"I hope they are." Melody smiled brightly. "It'd be so much fun to have one at my party! I can't wait!"

-Mentalist-

"It's not very often I have to look for you up here anymore." Lisbon crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe of Jane's attic room.

He flinched slightly where he was lying on his little cot and lifted his head to look at her.

"What's up?" She tilted her head to the side.

"Uh, nothing. Just enjoying the quiet. What is it?"

"Well, I've got an almost nine year old downstairs wondering where her uncle is so that we can all go out for that late lunch and ice cream she was promised earlier. You really have to stop promising her ice cream. It's not healthy for her."

"Right." Jane smiled and sat up. "I'm sure she'd be just as excited about celery for dessert."

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "That's not what I mean. And something's up."

"What is?"

"I don't know. You're the one up here either brooding or sulking. Which is it and why?"

"Neither and no reason."

"Right. Because you just decided to hide away in your brooding and sulking room to relax and clear your mind."

"_Now_ who's acting like a shrink?"

"Patrick."

"Yes. Okay. Fine. I was a little upset, but I'm fine. I'm over it."

"No you're not."

"I'm _getting_ there."

"Is this a Red John thing?"

"No."

Lisbon watched him for a moment, deciding if he was telling the truth or not. "I don't mean to be insensitive then, but, is it a Charlotte and Angela thing?"

Jane's gaze snapped up and caught hers. He hadn't expected her to be that blunt in asking.

"It is." She answered herself. "I can go with Melody. You can stay here if you need to be alone. I know the anniversary is coming up-I mean-um…Yeah, you can stay here if you want." She nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait."

She stopped and turned to face him again, worry written all over her face.

"I'm coming."

"You don't have to if you don't want. If you'd rather stay here-"

"I'm coming." He stood up and stretched.

Lisbon glanced back down the hall before taking a step into the room. "You can talk to me. You know that."

Jane closed the distance between them and wrapped her up in a tight hug. "I know."

She hugged him back.

"I'm not angry or brooding or anything. I just…Charlotte was nine, too. She was nine when…"

"I'm sorry. You don't have to go to the party either if it's too much."

"No, I want to go. I want to go to Melody's party and to lunch. I was just reminded and it upset me a bit."

"I understand." Lisbon nodded as they pulled away slightly.

"Is he not up here?" They heard Melody call and turned toward the door. "Is he playing Hide And Go-oh. Found you. Okay. I'll go back downstairs-"

"No. Would you come here, please?" Jane unwound one arm from around Lisbon and held his hand out to Melody.

Melody looked at him hesitantly over her shoulder for a moment before turning back around and walking over to him. "Yes?"

Jane let go of Lisbon completely and crouched in front of Melody. "I bet you're hungry.

Melody glanced away and nodded before holding his gaze again. "I can get food from the fridge, though. We can go another time."

"No, no." Jane kissed her forehead. "We're still going to go. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"It's okay." Melody mumbled, glancing away again. "Were you crying?"

"You don't have to worry about that."

"But it matters if you're sad."

Jane gave her a small smile. "I know. But being sad forever isn't going to fix anything. I'm not going to give up a late lunch with two of my favourite ladies because I was too busy being sad."

Melody smiled a little, then faltered. "Are you sad because you still miss Charlotte and Angela?"

Both Jane and Lisbon looked at her, surprised and quite shocked. They'd made a point to mention Charlotte and Angela as little as possible around Melody to avoid awkward questions and upsetting Melody. And they hadn't taken her back to the tombstones a second time. Lisbon was surprised Melody even recalled the event.

"Yeah." Jane nodded. "I miss them."

"You miss being a daddy?" Melody looked at him intently.

"Yes. I do."

Melody took a deep breath and shifted her feet a little as she glanced away before looking back at him. "Well…you're like a dad for me. I mean, you're not really my daddy, but you're like my daddy. So, now I have, like, two daddies. But you're Charlotte's daddy so you shouldn't miss being a daddy because you are still one, but now Charlotte's an angel, but she's still your daughter and she…I'm sure she still loves you-"

"I understand." Jane smiled, cutting off Melody's babbling, though it did manage to warm his heart. "You're like a second daughter to me as well."

Melody's smile returned.

"Who's ready for that lunch?" Lisbon asked.

Jane looked up at her. "Well, I'm quite hungry now." He looked at Melody. "How about you?"

"Yeah." Melody nodded, smiling brightly.

Jane took one of Melody's hands and one of Lisbon's hands as they left the attic and headed out for their late lunch and ice cream.

"How badly do you want an elephant at your birthday party?" Jane inquired casually as they got into the empty elevator.

"You can get an elephant!?" Melody looked up at him. "Are you going to get Daisy?"

Jane smiled. "No promises, but I'll see what I can do."

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**Author's Note: Please review!**


	8. Birthday Girl

**Author's Note: Hey eyveryone! Here's chapter 8! Sorry for making you guys wait so long, but I was staying with a friend for the last few weeks and that left no time for writting. But, I'm back now. Yay! Thank you to Pen99, Marcia Santos, qmione, marshmallowdeviant and everyone else who has commented so far, as well as everyone else who favourited and followed my story. Sorry again for the long wait, and thanks for sticking with me!**

**Discalimer: The Mentalist + Not mine = :(**

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Melody had woken up that morning, incredibly excited. She was turning nine! She got dressed in her special birthday outfit that she'd picked out with Lisbon and James tied her hair up nicely, placing a little birthday girl hat on her head.

"You excited for your party?" James asked as he helped Melody into her sweater. The mid-October air was a little chilled.

"Yes." Melody replied happily. "I can't wait!"

"Well, we better hurry, then." James smiled as he zipped up his own sweater and they both headed out.

-Mentalist-

They arrived at the picnic area at the carnival field where Lisbon, Jane and the rest of the team had started to set up.

"It looks so pretty!" Melody called as she approached the roofed off area that had streamers tied to the posts.

"Thank you." Van Pelt smiled and crouched down to give Melody a hug after taping up another balloon. "Happy birthday, sweetie!"

"Thank you." Melody returned the hug.

"Hi, Melody." Ben waved from where he was helping Rigsby with the piñata.

"Hi, Bat Ben! Hi, Batman!" Melody waved back.

Jane leaned over and jokingly whispered in Lisbon's ear. "Next year for her party, we should get Rigsby and Ben dress up like Batman and Robin. Set up some speakers and have them run around to the Batman theme song?"

Lisbon snorted and tried not to laugh too loudly at the mental image.

"Hi." Melody skipped over to them after greeting Cho.

"Hey! There's the birthday girl!" Jane held his arms out and gave Melody a big hug.

"Yep!" Melody smiled then moved to give Lisbon a hug as well.

"Aw, you look so pretty." Lisbon kissed Melody's head.

"Thank you." Melody smiled and blushed. "Can I help with stuff?"

"Sure. There's a few things that I might need your help with. Come on." Jane held out his hand."

"Okay." Melody took his hand and followed him off.

"Did you get the cake?" James asked Lisbon.

"Yep." Lisbon nodded. "In the back seat of my car. I'll bring it out after dinner. Good thing it's not an ice cream cake."

It wasn't much later that the first guest arrived.

"Ellie!" Melody called and ran over to give her bestest friend a hug after she got out of the car.

"Happy birthday!" Ellie hugged Melody tightly as her parents got Melody's present from the trunk.

"Thank you." Melody smiled.

"Where do we put your present?" Mrs. Fallon asked.

"Um…I don't know…" Melody looked back at the picnic tables. "Ask Teresa. She'll know."

"All right." Mr. and Mrs. Fallon headed off to join everyone else.

"It looks really nice." Ellie commented on the décor.

"Thank you." Melody smiled. "I can't wait until everyone else gets here!"

-Mentalist-

It didn't take long for the party to get started after all the guests arrived.

"Okay." Lisbon called, grabbing everyone's attention. "It's time for the piñata. Birthday girl gets the first swing."

Everyone gathered around where the piñata was hung from a nearby tree branch and Van Pelt put the blindfold on Melody. Rigsby handed her the bat.

"Might wanna take a step, there." Jane whispered to Lisbon, placing his hands on her hips and pulling her back a step so that she was right next to him. "Strong nine year old, plus wooden bat, equals possibly lethal nine year old."

"And at work, pissed off wife, plus gun, equals possibly lethal wife."

"That a threat?"

"Nope." Lisbon grinned. "It's a promise."

They turned back and watched as Van Pelt let Melody go after spinning her three times. Melody took a few cautious steps forward, poking gently at the air with the bat until she felt it hit the piñata. When she had a feeling of about where the piñata was, she wound up and gave one really good swing, hitting the piñata with a _whack_. Everyone cheered as she gave another two good swings before taking off her blindfold and passing the bat off to the next child. She'd made a good dent in the piñata.

When the piñata finally broke, all the kids squealed and dove to grab as much candy as they possibly could.

"They look like rabid quarrels." Jane commented.

"They're kids. It's candy. What did you expect?" Cho said in his usual stoic manner, but Jane had been having trouble taking him seriously all day with the pointy party hat on his head. All the adults had worn them. Apparently it was not just something for the kids anymore. At least, not in Melody's opinion. Cho's hat had a sparkly blue pom-pom on the top, paired with his stony expression and he reminded Jane of those grumpy cat pictures that were so popular on the internet.

"I'm just saying." Jane shrugged.

Melody had stuffed her pockets full of piñata candy by the time it had all been collected and Lisbon gave her a plastic bag to store it all in.

"Hey, James."

"Yeah, Patrick?" James turned to face his brother-in-law.

"Do me a favour? Can you take my phone, go stand over there," Jane pointed toward the end of the picnic area that face the open field, "and tell the person on the other end that it's time?"

James gave Jane a suspicious look. "Okay…?"

Jane opened his phone and dialled a number, passing the phone off to James, he shooed the younger man off in the desired direction. Once he saw that James was on the right path, Jane headed over to Melody. "Are you having fun?"

"Yeah!" Melody nodded at him; eating the last piece of candy that Lisbon was going to allow her before the pizza got there.

"That's good." Jane smiled, sitting down next to her and whispering in her ear. "Daddy has one last surprise for you before pizza."

"What?" Melody's eyes lit up. "What's the surprise?"

"Well, it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you, now, would it? Why don't you go see for yourself. He's just over there."

Melody jumped off of her seat and ran over to her father. "What is it? What is it? What _is_ it!?"

"Calm down, Melody." James told her. "What are you-?" But he was cut off by the sound of an elephant.

Melody's jaw dropped as she gawked at the big animal for a moment before looking back at James. "You got me an elephant, Daddy!? You got an elephant for my birthday party!? Thank you, Daddy!" Melody threw her arms around her father and hugged him tightly.

James just looked between her and the approaching elephant with a shocked expression on his face. All the other children were gasping and whispering excitedly amongst one another. "You're welcome?" He patted Melody's back.

"Wow. You really outdid yourself, James." Jane smiled as he approached, hands in his pockets.

"What the hell…?" Lisbon joined them.

"Daddy got me an elephant for the party!" Melody told Lisbon excitedly.

"I see that." Lisbon nodded.

"Can we all have elephant rides?" Melody asked.

"That's what people pay for, isn't it?" Jane said. "And another perk of being the birthday girl is that you get the first elephant ride."

"Yay!" Melody cheered as all the kids started to line up for the elephant.

"Thank you." Jane plucked his cell phone from James' hand and placed it back in his pocket.

"You set this up." Lisbon looked at Jane.

"Uh, no. Melody wanted an elephant and James got her an elephant. What does any of it have to do with me?"

"Right." Lisbon rolled her eyes.

"Come on." Jane said. "Once all the kids have had an elephant ride, maybe they'll let the adults have one as well." He placed his hand on Lisbon's lower back, guiding her in the direction of the elephant and James followed.

"Come on, Teresa." Jane coaxed.

"No." Lisbon shook her head. "I don't want to."

"Come on."

"No."

"Go, Teresa!" Melody encouraged. "It's fun. You know. You liked Daisy before. Go."

"I don't really want to." Lisbon shook her head again.

"Come on. You'll be fine." Jane smiled. "All the other kids went. You can't even try and use the excuse that you're holding them up."

"Go, Teresa! Go! Go!" Melody clapped and her friends joined her, followed closely by the adults.

"Okay, _okay_. I'm going." But Lisbon was smiling anyway as she climbed up the ladder.

Everyone cheered for her as she got on the elephant's back.

When the elephant rides were over with, everyone headed back to the picnic area where Rigsby and Cho ad set out the pizza that had arrived. Melody sat at the head of the long picnic table for the kids and munched happily on her pizza while chatting with her friends.

"The elephant was sweet." Lisbon told Jane quietly as they ate their pizza. "Obviously it was you."

"Hey, just let Melody think it was her dad. He may not have the connections to get an elephant, but he's doing a good job."

"Aw." Lisbon smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder for a moment before lifting it again to continue eating her pizza. "You're such a softy. But, how are you holding up?"

"Not as bad as I thought I was going to be."

"Yeah?" Lisbon asked gently. "No flashbacks, guilt?"

"Nothing I can't handle." Jane smiled at her.

"Good to hear." Lisbon nodded and returned his smile.

After everyone was done their pizza, Van Pelt lit the nine candles on Melody's cake and Lisbon carried it to her as they all sang _Happy Birthday_.

"Okay, Melody." James told her. "Make a wish and then blow out all your candles."

Melody looked back at her cake, squeezed here eyes shut, took a deep breath and blew out all the candles on her cake. Everyone cheered for her as Lisbon took out the candles and James cut the cake, giving the first piece to Melody. It was chocolate, Melody's favourite.

When everyone was done their cake, they moved on to opening presents before the party ended and everyone had to go home, leaving the hosts to clean up what was left.

-Mentalist-

"Oh, I'm so tired." Lisbon yawned as she crawled under the blankets of the bed. "That was an eventful day."

"It was." Jane agreed as he stretched a bit before turning on his side and pulling Lisbon close to him. "And now it's time for my favourite part of any day."

"Bedtime is your favourite part of the day?" Lisbon raised a brow. "I thought your favourite part of the day is whenever you got to be a pain in my butt. Which is a lot of the time, by the way."

"Don't be mean." Jane chastised jokingly.

"You're asking me to change who I am?" Lisbon smirked.

"That's not who you are." Jane snuggled closer to her. "You're not really mean. You're a wonderful woman. Now shush and go to sleep."

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**Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope it was worth the wait. Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought! :) See you at the next chapter!**


	9. Cupcakes and Bedtime Stories

**Author's Note: Hello, everyone! I'm sorry for the long wait between updates again! I just had some stuff to do and a bit of writer's block(ugh, I hate writer's block). But, thank you to Marcia Santos and marshmallowdeviant who reviewed the last chapter. Also, there's a forum for anyone who ships Jisbon. It's Jisbonfans. Freeforums. com. If you ship it, I think you should join! So, here is chapter nine and I hope you all enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

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"Come on, Teresa." Jane sat on the side of the bed and gave Lisbon a gentle shake. "Melody's going to be here soon. Don't you want to greet her when she gets here?"

"Right." Lisbon mumbled and slowly sat up.

"You okay?" Jane asked, tilting his head. "You look a little sick."

"No." Lisbon shook her head. "No, I'm fine. I think I just need a hot shower."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Lisbon reluctantly got out of bed and dragged her heels into the bathroom to take her morning shower. It was a good thing she had today off because she really didn't want to go to work. Not with how miserable she felt.

Jane headed downstairs to make something for Lisbon to eat as well as a snack for Melody and himself. Jane heard the water for the shower turn off just before there was a knock at the door. He went to answer it, unlocking and opening the door. "Hello." He smiled at Melody and James.

"Morning." James smiled.

"Hi." Melody greeted.

Jane held out his hand and James passed him Melody's overnight bag. "Her p.j's and everything is in there, I know she has some clothes and stuff here, but it's just extra. Thanks again."

"No problem." Jane smiled, slinging the bag over his shoulder.

James knelt down and face Melody. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Be good." He kissed her forehead and gave her a hug.

"I will, Daddy."

"You always do, don't you. I love you."

"I love you, too, Daddy. Good luck at work."

"Thank you." He smiled and left with one final wave to Jane and Melody.

Jane let Melody in, casting James a glance as he got back in his car. He had lost a significant amount of weight since Jane had first met him, despite the fact that he ate almost as much as Rigsby. But, Jane had to give him credit. James Lisbon was kicking.

"Where's Teresa?" Melody asked as she took off her jacket and shoes.

"She's upstairs taking a showering." Jane answered, shutting the door, taking Melody's jacket and hanging it up. "She's tired today."

"Oh." Was all Melody said as she put her shoes on the rack.

"I made us all some food, though. Maybe she'll perk up with some food." Jane led Melody into the kitchen.

"What did you make?"

"I made you a peanut and jelly sandwich." Jane told her, handing her the plate with her food on it.

"I like these." Melody smiled.

"I know." Jane smiled back.

"Hello, Melody." Lisbon entered the kitchen.

"Hi, Teresa." Melody smiled at her aunt brightly.

Lisbon kissed Melody on the head and then headed over to the counter.

"I made you eggs and toast." Jane proudly informed Lisbon.

Lisbon smiled, but once her eyes fell on the food, her stomach lurched. Under normal circumstances, the full plate of food would have looked very appetizing and she would have gladly forked all of it into her mouth. However, today, it didn't look appealing at all and all she wanted to do was turn away. "I'm not hungry." Lisbon shook her head. "Maybe later."

"But they're fresh now." Jane's brows furrowed. "You love my eggs."

"I'm just not hungry this morning."

"You have to eat something."

"Do you want half of my sandwich?" Melody offered, holding her plate up higher for Lisbon.

"No, sweetie. Thank you, though." Lisbon looked back up at Jane's questioning face. "Fine. You're eggs look great." She grabbed the plate and sat down at the table with Melody, Jane joining them.

Lisbon didn't eat much of her eggs or toast. Opting, instead, to pick at the eggs with her fork while nibbling occasionally on the eggs and toast.

"Maybe you should go back to bed, Teresa." Jane said when he was finished his own sandwich and got up to put the plate in the sink.

"What? Why?"

"Because you haven't touched your food, you don't look well and I think you're half falling asleep. You're obviously sick."

"I am not sick." Lisbon retorted, stubbornly.

"Of course you are. Don't worry. Melody and I won't ruin the place while you're sleeping."

"I'm not sick." But, of course, at just that moment Lisbon's stomach decided to flop around and create a very unpleasant feeling. "I need to go to the bathroom." She excused herself and all but sprinted up the stairs.

Melody and Jane looked at each other.

"She's sick." Melody said.

"Well, at least one of you Lisbons agree with me." Jane sighed as he reached for a phone.

It wasn't long before there was another knock on the door and Jane answered it. "Hello. Thanks for coming. She's still being stubborn, so I guess that's a good sigh, but I thought a professional opinion couldn't hurt."

"No problem." Millie smiled as she stepped inside. "I usually get Saturdays off anyway and my day has been incredibly uneventful until you called. Josh is working and nothing needed doing."

"We always seem to need you at times that are eerily convenient." Jane grinned. "You messing with us?"

Millie laughed. "Yes. I just troll around and make sure that one of you will be sick so I'll have something to do when I'm bored." She joked.

"That's not very nice of you." Jane teasingly scolded. "Here, let me help you with your coat. How far along are you now?" He glanced at her swollen stomach as he took her jacket and the bag she'd brought with her.

"Twenty-four weeks."

"Know what you're having yet? Or are you going to wait?"

"No way could I be patient enough to wait." Millie shook her head and they both headed up the stairs. "It's a boy. He started kicking about a week ago. Give or take a few days."

"Any names picked out?"

"Oh, Josh and I are such a mess with those. We can't come to a solid decision."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out." Jane opened the room door for her and let her go in first.

Millie flicked on the light and Lisbon groaned in the bed, putting her hands over her eyes.

"Hi, Millie." Melody waved from where she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Hello, Melody. Goodness, you get bigger every time I see you."

Melody smiled. "Thank you. But it's because Daddy makes me eat vegetables. They're really yucky, though."

Millie chuckled. "They're not always very tasty, are they?"

"Nope." Melody shook her head.

Millie kissed Melody on the head and then turned to attend to Lisbon. "How are you feeling, Teresa?"

"I'm fine."

"You threw up." Jane reminded her.

"And now I feel fine…Fine enough to have a nap, at least."

Millie smiled at Lisbon's stubbornness. "Can I have my bag back, Patrick?" She held out her hand and Jane passed it to her. She placed it next to her and put one hand on Lisbon's forehead while placing her other hand on her own forehead. "Yeah, you're warm." Millie confirmed, reaching into her bag and pulling out a thermometer. "Put this under your tongue."

"What am I? Six?" Lisbon groaned.

"Open up for the choo choo train, Teresa." Millie teased.

Lisbon just groaned and opened her mouth so Millie could put the thermometer in.

"Any other symptoms?" Millie asked her. "Dizziness? Weakness? A bad or phlegm-y cough?"

"Well, I don't feel as strong as usual."

"But you can move around? If you had to, get up and walk?"

"Yeah." Lisbon nodded.

"Have you eaten anything different? Anything questionable?"

Lisbon shook her head.

Millie looked over at Patrick, who had sat next to Melody and had his arm draped over the girls shoulders. "Anything Patrick hasn't also eaten?"

Lisbon thought for a moment. They ate mostly the same things. "Well, I had this cupcake yesterday…"

"Wait. The ones on the break room counter?" Jane asked.

Lisbon nodded.

"Teresa. Those cupcakes were getting thrown out."

"_What_?"

"They were expired. Gone bad. They were supposed to get thrown out."

"How come no one said anything? There wasn't even a note!"

"It's okay." Jane patted her leg. "I'm sure you'll be fine tomorrow."

Lisbon glared at him.

Millie pulled the thermometer out of Lisbon's mouth and looked at the temperature. "You're warm, but you're not completely burning up. It was probably the cupcake. You've probably just got food poisoning. Patrick's right. You'll probably be fine tomorrow."

"That's good news." Jane smiled.

"Yay." Lisbon added sarcastically.

Millie cleaned the thermometer and then put it back in her bag. "Lots of fluids, some light snacks and lots of bed rest is what you need. You'll be fully functional tomorrow."

"Thanks." Lisbon mumbled tiredly.

"No problem." Millie grabbed her bag and stood up.

Jane looked at Melody. "How about we see Millie out?"

"Okay." Melody slid off the side of the bed.

"We'll be right back." Jane kissed Lisbon's forehead and then got up to see Millie off.

"Millie?"

"Yes, Melody?"

"Is it true that when a baby is born, they go through a magical portal in the mommy's tummy?"

Millie sent Jane a strange look before looking back at Melody. "Yeah. That's basically it." Of all the fabricated stories she'd ever heard from kids about where babies come from, a magical tummy portal was probably the strangest. Oddly enough, though, it was the most accurate.

"Good." Melody said. "Daniel said that a bird drops the baby off on the mommy and daddy's doorstep. That's just stupid. Why would a bird want to deliver a human baby? And how would the bird get the baby out of the mommy's tummy? I told him it makes no sense. And to make the baby, the mommy plants a magic bean in her bellybutton, right?"

Behind them, Jane pursed his lips together and tried not to laugh.

"Well, that would only make sense, wouldn't it?" Millie replied. "If it's a _magic_ bean."

"That's what I told him!" Melody threw her hands in the air. "Birds have nothing to do with it. A magic bean at least makes sense."

"It sure does." Millie tried not to laugh as she reached for her jacket and Jane helped her into it before she got her shoes on.

"Can it talk yet?" Melody asked.

"What?"

"The baby." Melody elaborated. "Can it talk yet?"

"No." Millie shook her head. "But, if you listen really closely, you might be able to heart its heartbeat."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Can I try?"

"I'm sorry." Jane said. "We don't mean-"

"No, no." Millie waved her hand dismissively. "I don't mind. Go ahead. Put your ear against my tummy and be very quiet. See if you can hear his heartbeat."

Melody took a careful step closer, placing her hands gently on Millie's tummy and then slowly pressing her ear against it. She listened intently. "I hear it." She whispered.

"Yeah?" Millie asked.

"Mhm." Melody continued to listen. "Ah!" Melody took a step back and placed a hand on her cheek, glaring at Millie's stomach. "It _kicked_ me."

"_He_." Millie corrected. "And that means he must like you."

Melody looked up at Millie, confused. "But he kicked me."

"He can't say he likes you any other way. When he gets excited, he kicks because it's all he can do to show it. I'm sorry. He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No. I'm okay."

"Glad to hear it. You want to hear his heartbeat, Patrick?"

"I'm okay. Kids seem to like me and Teresa hits me enough as it is." Jane joked.

"I guess she has to keep you in line somehow." Millie grinned. "Anyway. I'll let you guys attend to your patient upstairs and head out. Goodbye, you two. Are you all still coming to the baby shower in two weeks?"

"Of course." Jane nodded.

"Okay. Just making sure you remembered."

"How could we forget? Have a safe drive, and if you ever need _us_ for a change, feel free to call."

"Oh, if I need anything, rest assured, you'll hear from me." Millie waved at them as she stepped out the door and headed for her car.

Jane shut and locked the door behind her. "You want to come with me and make sure that Teresa is tucked in properly? Then we can watch a movie if you'd like."

"Okay." Melody and Jane went back upstairs to see how Lisbon was doing.

"Here you go." Jane placed a garbage can at Lisbon's side of the bed. "Just in case you have a sudden need for it."

Lisbon just grumbled and pulled the blankets closer to her chin.

"We'll let you nap. We're going to tuck you in. " Melody said as she helped Jane tuck the blankets around Lisbon. "Let us know if you need anything."

"Thank you." Lisbon mumbled.

"You're welcome." Melody smiled. And with that, she kissed Lisbon head, climbed off the bed and headed back downstairs with Jane.

"What movie do you want to watch?" Jane asked as he opened the movie cabinet. Lisbon's movie collection had done a tremendous amount of growing since Melody and James had moved to Sacramento.

"Tangled?" Melody suggested.

Jane scanned the movie cases and pulled out the one he needed. "Tangled it is." He set up the TV and put in the disk before joining Melody on the couch.

Melody snuggled into his side, watching the TV screen in anticipation. "Patrick?"

"Yes, Melody?"

"Is Teresa going to be sick _all day_?"

"It looks that way." Jane nodded.

"Oh." Melody went back to watching the movie.

When the movie was over, Jane put the DVD back in its case and then returned it to its shelf. "Should we take Teresa a snack?"

"Yes." Melody nodded. "She's probably hungry now."

They both got up and headed for the kitchen. Jane grabbed some grapes from the fridge and a banana. He put a few grapes on a plate as well as some banana slices, splitting the rest of the banana between himself and Melody.

"Patrick?" Melody asked as they walked up the stairs, Jane had assigned her to carry the plate and she took her job very seriously.

"Yes?" Jane carried a glass of water.

Melody glanced at the closed door they were standing in front of and gestured for Jane to lean closer. He obliged her and she stood on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear.

Jane smiled. "That sounds like a wonderful idea."

"You think so?" Melody's cheeks dimpled.

"Of course. But first, we have to give Teresa her snack. Then we'll work on it, okay?"

"Okay." Melody nodded and they entered the room. "Teresa. We brought you a snack to help you feel better."

"Mmmnnn…" Lisbon moaned and peeked an eye open at them. "For me?" She tried not to sound too grumpy.

"Yeah." Melody nodded as she placed the plate she was carrying on the bedside table and then jumped up on the side of the bed. "Grapes and some banana."

"Oh, yummy." Lisbon slowly sat up and leaned against her pillows.

"Feeling any less sick?" Jane asked, handing Melody back the plate.

"I'm feeling a bit better. Not much, though."

"This will help." Melody held out the grape she had just plucked off the stem. "It's healthy."

"Well, thank y-" Lisbon was interrupted as Melody shoved the grape in her mouth. Lisbon sputtered in surprise and bit down on the fruit.

"Gentle, Melody." Jane patted Lisbon's back lightly.

"Thanks." Lisbon said once she had swallowed the fruit.

Melody and Jane hung around and made sure that Lisbon finished all of her snack before tucking her in again and heading back downstairs with the empty dishes.

"You pick a CD and then we'll get started right away." Jane told Melody as they put the dishes in the sink."

"Okay." Melody beamed as she hurried out of the kitchen. She already had something in mind.

-Mentalist-

Two water breaks, one snack break and two more check up on Lisbon breaks later; and Melody and Jane were ready. At least, they felt ready. Jane took the CD out of the player and carried it upstairs, Melody following close behind.

"You awake, Teresa?" Jane asked softly as he poked his head inside the room.

"I am now." Lisbon slurred tiredly as she sat up while Melody and Jane entered the room.

"Good." Jane smiled. "Melody and I have a special surprise for you. It was Melody's idea, really."

"Yeah? What is it?" Lisbon perked up.

"You'll see." Melody smiled as she hurried to stand at the foot of the bed.

Jane turned on the bedside lamps, Lisbon flinching at the sudden onslaught of light, but didn't protest. Then, Jane went to the CD player and inserted the CD and pushed a few buttons before pressing pause and grabbing the remote.

"What are you guys up to?" Lisbon asked.

"Ssshhhhh." Jane shook his head. "Just sit back, relax and enjoy."

Lisbon settled against her pillows again as Jane took his spot at the foot of the bed next to Melody, both their backs facing away from Lisbon. Jane extended his arm to hit play on the remote before pocketing the device. There was a very short moment of silence before the song started.

"_Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want…"_

Lisbon bit her lip, holding back a laugh. 'Wannabe' by _The Spice Girls_. Oh, no.

Melody hopped and spun around to face the bed, arms held over her head and fingers spread out with Jane mimicking the action next to her. They then proceeded to plug their noses and wiggled into crouching positions in the 'drowning swimmer' dance move, before popping back up to repeat it once more in time with the music. Jane reached over and took one of Melody's hands, spinning her twice, and they hopped passed each other with Melody passing in front and repeated the 'drowning swimmer' move. The hopped to the right and clapped, hopped to the left and clapped and then spun a full 360.

Lisbon smiled widely and couldn't help but laugh and wiggle a bit in her spot to the music as well.

When the performance was over, Lisbon clapped for them as they took their bows and then Jane went to turn off the CD player. "That was great."

"You liked it?" Melody hopped up and sat on the side of the bed.

"Of course. It was wonderful." Lisbon reached out and fixed Melody's ponytail.

"We worked on that all afternoon for you." Jane flopped down on his side of the bed.

"Thank you."

"You look like you're feeling a lot better." Jane placed a hand on Lisbon's forehead.

"I'm feeling a lot better. Not completely normal yet, but much better."

"At least you're feeling better." Melody put in. "You'll be all better tomorrow."

"I think I might." Lisbon smiled at her.

"Come on, Melody." Jane got up after glancing at the clock. "Lets get you some dinner and then it's bedtime."

"But I don't want to go to bed." Melody protested. "I'm not tired."

"But it's almost bed time." Jane repeated.

"But, I'm not tired." Melody looked at Lisbon for support.

"Bedtime is bedtime." Lisbon shook her head.

Melody pouted.

"At least I'll give you dinner first." Jane held out his hand.

Reluctantly, Melody took his hand and followed him downstairs for dinner.

-Mentalist-

"Do you want me to read you a bedtime story?" Jane asked after Melody had her p.j's on and they were brushing their teeth.

"Just you?" Melody asked.

"Teresa's not feeling well right now."

"But, we can't have bedtime stories without Teresa. We just have to. That's how it always is. It would be like going to Chicago and not visiting Uncle Tommy and Annabeth."

Jane thought for a moment, trying to find a solution. Maybe he could see if Lisbon was up for a bedtime story. It wasn't such a huge task.

"I know!" Melody looked at him. "I could tell Teresa a bedtime story!"

"You mean read?"

"No." Melody shook her head. "I could tell her one. One time, Daddy told me a bedtime story because I didn't want to read any of the other books. It was a good story."

"That's a fantastic idea." Jane nodded. "You're on a role today, I tell you."

Melody giggled. They finished brushing their teeth and headed back so Melody could tell Lisbon a bedtime story.

"Melody has a special treat for us." Jane said as he and Melody re-entered the room.

"Hmn?" Lisbon opened her eyes to look at them. She was half asleep.

"Melody wants to tell us a bedtime story."

"A bedtime story for me?"

Melody nodded.

"Oh, I can't wait." Lisbon patted the empty mattress next to her. "What are we reading?"

"Nothing." Melody said as she and Jane settled onto the mattress, all three cozying up to each other with Melody in the middle. "I'm going to make it up."

Lisbon sent Jane a curious look. "Okay."

"Okay." Melody nodded, all three lying on their backs and facing the ceiling. "Once upon a time, there was a princess named…Smelly. She was named that because she smelled nice. Like flowers."

"What kind of flowers?" Jane asked.

"Nice flowers? Lilies. I don't know." Melody rolled her eyes. "It's not important."

Lisbon and Jane looked at each other, both trying not to smile at that.

"_Anyway_." Melody continued. "Princess Smelly had a pet unigon named Puff."

"Unigon?" Jane inquired.

"Half unicorn, half dragon. Duh?" Melody sighed.

Both adults had to hold back laughter at that.

"Can I finish the story?" Melody huffed.

"Of course." Lisbon said. "Please, continue. I need to know what happens with Smelly and Puff."

"Okay." Melody wove a tail about how Smelly's kingdom was invaded by evil brustle sprouts, plotting to overtake the Land of Sweets. Puff and Smelly had to defend the land with their liquorish lassos, candy corn cannons and Puffs magic fire that turned all the brustle sprouts into sugar cubes. Then they also had to save Smelly's best friend whose name was Jell-O. In the end, the brustle sprout army was defeated and the Land of Sweets could finally live in peace once more. All thanks to Smelly and Puff.

"I think that was the best bedtime story I've ever heard." Lisbon grinned and kissed Melody's head.

"Wonderful." Jane agreed as he sat up.

"Thank you." Melody also sat up.

"And now, it's bedtime." Jane told her. "Say goodnight."

"Goodnight, Teresa." Melody gave her aunt a hug.

"Goodnight, Melody." Lisbon smiled.

Jane left to tuck Melody in and then returned a few minutes later, once Melody was safely tucked into bed. He turned off the bedside lamp as he crawled under the blankets and snuggled against Lisbon. "We should have asked her for bedtime stories a long time ago. I've never even heard of a unigon before. Where does she come up with this stuff? It's gold. We should make it a children's book and sell it to a big publisher."

Lisbon laughed. "You are not going to exploit the creative mind of my nine-year-old niece."

"Exploit? Teresa. The world needs to hear about Smelly and Puff. We'd be doing the world a great service."

"Shush." Lisbon giggled. "It's time to sleep."

"You've been sleeping all day. How are you still tired?"

"Food poisoning will do that to a person. Now, _sh_."

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**Author's Note: That's it for now! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, hopefully I'll have the next one up faster and return to my weekly kind of schedule. Please leave a review and let me know what you thought. It's always appreciated! :)**


	10. Happy Father's Day

**Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Sorry for the long break I had between this chapter and the last. I had written Confess Already and not intended it to be as long as it is, so I was trying to finish that, but it's almost done now. I decided I should write a Father's Day chapter, though, and this is just a fluffy little Father's Day chapter for you all to enjoy and hopefully it makes you smile. Sadly, I wasn't able to see my Dad this Father's Day, but we made some other arrangements. So it's all good.**

**Disclaimer: :(**

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Jane stared up at the ceiling of Lisbon's office. This is where he retreated now. He didn't stay in the attic nearly as long as he used to. Of course, he went up there still, but he never stayed as long as before. It was too bad that Lisbon had been called to a meeting an hour ago, leaving him to be in her office by himself. But, it was still less lonely than the attic by a long shot. He heard the door _swoosh_ gently as it opened and the little footsteps told him who had entered without looking, but he turned to look at Melody anyway.

"Hi." She said.

"Hello. How's my favourite nine-year-old Lisbon doing?"

"I'm good." Melody walked over to the couch, seeming a bit nervous. "How are you?"

"I'm okay." Jane lifted his head to look at her. "Something wrong?"

"You tell me. You're the one that's hiding in Teresa's office."

Jane frowned. "I'm not hiding."

"Then why didn't you come out? I was waiting for us to read. We always read. Especially when Teresa goes to meetings. You just came in here and didn't do anything."

Shoot. He'd forgotten about reading with Melody. "I'm sorry, Melody. I don't know what I was thinking. We can read now." He started getting up.

"Are you sad about Father's Day? You left after Batman was talking about his plans with Benny."

"No. I was just tired."

"Liar."

"Excuse me?" Jane raised a brow. That was a seamless lie. She couldn't have thought he was lying.

"Liar, liar. Pants on fire…Why do people say that? It rhymes, but it doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know." Jane smiled and shook his head, sitting up. "What are we going to read."

"No. Not until you tell me the truth. Tell me."

"I'm not lying."

"Yes, you are."

"I'm not."

"Are so."

"Am not."

"Are so."

"Am n- I'm not. Lets get to reading now." How had she dragged him into a yes-no battle? He was a grown man. Jeez.

"No. The truth." Melody shook his arm.

"Melody, stop it. Please. I'm not lying."

Melody stared hard at him with a frown on her face and a furrowed brow.

He raised a brow at her.

Melody's response was to fold her arms over her chest.

"Don't try to discipline me." Jane shook his head. "I'm not doing anything wrong."

"Lying _is_ wrong."

"Melody-"

"If you don't tell me, then I'm going to tell Teresa that you were moping and you lied to me and you didn't want to read with me. It makes me sad when you lie to me." Slowly, Melody started to pout. "I just want to know what's wrong. I just want to help." Tears welled up in her eyes.

Jane began to realise that he wasn't going to win this argument. Not when she was pulling puppy-dog eyes, tears and the '_Teresa_' card. Had anybody else in the entire world stood in front of him and said 'I'm going to tell Teresa about this', Jane would have dismissed them with a comment akin to _yeah, have fun with that_ and waited for them to leave. But this was Melody. She had just about everyone tied around her little fingers, whether she was aware of it or not. And he already felt bad enough that he'd forgotten about reading with her. "I do want to read with you. I was just thinking about some other things. I'm sorry. I love reading with you." He pulled her up to sit on the couch and hugged her.

"Then why did you leave and not read with me?"

"I was just a little jealous that Rigsby's weekend sounded like fun." Jane replied lightly.

"Because you don't have any plans for Father's Day?" Melody looked up at him.

Jane shrugged.

"Do you…Do you and Teresa want to come with me and Daddy to the picnic?"

Jane looked at her, confused. "Picnic?"

Melody nodded. "With my gymnastics academy. They have a Father's Day picnic."

"I didn't hear about that before."

"This is the first one they're doing."

"Is it an invitation thing?"

"They sent out newsletters a few weeks ago." Melody shifted slightly.

"You didn't say anything about it."

"I…" Melody glanced away and shifted again before mumbling her reply. "I didn't think you'd want to go with us. I didn't want to make you sad."

Jane kissed her head. "You don't have to worry about stuff like that Melody. I'd love to go with you to the picnic. I'm sure Teresa would be happy to go as well."

Melody looked up at him and smiled.

"Go get that book you wanted to read." Jane kissed her head. "We have a lot of story to catch up on."

-Mentalist-

"Wow. They really know how to throw a picnic." Jane said to Lisbon as they got out of the car.

"There's a bouncy castle!" Melody gasped as she hopped out of the car.

"You want to go to the bouncy castle first?" James asked.

"Yeah!" Melody nodded.

"You guys want to come?" James asked Lisbon and Jane.

"I don't know. That barbeque and food table look pretty appetizing." Jane grinned.

James did a double-take. "Whoa. Is that what that line is for?"

"Looks like it." Jane nodded.

"We'll grab some drinks and see you over there." Lisbon said.

"You sure?" Melody asked.

Lisbon nodded.

"Come on, Melody. Before the line for the bouncy castle gets too long." James held out his hand and Melody took it, following him to the plaything.

"I was not expecting it to be this big." Lisbon commented as she and Jane laced their fingers together, walking to the drink station. "Good thing we put some water bottles in the trunk. One could die of thirst in this line."

Jane chuckled. "Whining already?"

"No."

Jane let go of her hand to wrap his arm around her waist as they took their place in line.

"If I were going to whine about something, it would be the fact you held my makeup hostage for a half an hour this morning to make me wear these stupid shorts."

"So, you got a little cut on your leg. It's not big deal."

"I scraped the entire side of my leg on gravel and it looks gross." Lisbon hissed. "Little cut my a-"

"Language, Teresa. There are children here."

Lisbon smacked his shoulder.

"Maybe next time you'll watch your step and accept help from me the next time you're trying to carry things that are too big for a single person to carry into the house."

"Shut up." Lisbon grumbled.

"I still like your legs. Doesn't that count for something. That's why I pushed for you to wear shorts. You always wear long pants."

Lisbon rolled her eyes.

"Besides. It's too warm out for you to be wearing jeans. And look on the bright side, you get a lovely new pair of shorts."

"Where did you find these things, anyway? Shorter-the-better short store? Seriously."

"Just because they don't reach all the way to your fingertips and past them, Miss. Catholic Education, doesn't mean they're not tasteful or too short. _That_ girl's shorts over there are too short." Jane tilted his head slightly.

"Well that girl's probably sixteen and thinks she's being trendy-whoa that's more of that girl than I ever would have wanted to see." Lisbon shook her head, catching sight of the girl Jane had been referring to. "I hope that trend is gone by the time Melody becomes a teenager." Lisbon shivered at the thought of Melody wearing a pair of shorts that short. Annie hadn't seemed partial to that trend, thank god.

Jane kissed her head. "I'd never let you leave home like that."

"Yeah, because I'm the one that buys myself short shorts." Lisbon teased.

"They're not that short." Jane defended.

"Mhm." Lisbon grinned, steeping forward when it was their turn and filled up four cups of juice with Jane to take to Melody and James.

"Here you go." Jane handed James one of the cups they'd filled with juice.

"Thanks." James accepted the plastic cup from him and took a sip.

"She going to be in there much longer?" Lisbon asked, scanning the group of bouncing and screaming kids, easily picking Melody out as she bounced as high as she could holding hands with another young girl.

"I think she's got just over another minute." James said. "They're only allowed five minutes at a time, apparently. I was watching the egg race."

Jane looked over to where the banner for the egg race was. "Haven't seen these games being played for a while."

"That's a shame because they're fun." James waved at Melody.

"Nothing wrong with bringing back a good old-fashioned egg race." Jane agreed.

The bouncy castle volunteer called for all the kids on the bouncy castle to get off so the next group could get on.

Melody slid out from under the gap in the netting and put her sandals back on. "Did you see me?" She asked excitedly as she hurried over to them. "Did you see how high I bounced?"

"Yeah, we did." James smiled. "Good job." He held out his hand and Melody high-fived him.

"You look thirsty." Lisbon held out the other cup of juice to Melody.

"Thank you." Melody took the cup and had a sip.

"So, Daddy wanted to go to the egg race." Jane told Melody. "You think he should go? We can wait at the end and cheer for him."

"Yeah! Daddy, you should go do the egg race!"

"Well, I don't know if I-"

"Come on, Daddy! You're good at balancing things!"

"Okay, I'll go and get in the next race. Come with me?"

"Of course." Melody smiled, taking her father's hand and the group went over to the egg race.

James signed up for the egg race once their drinks were all finished and got a sterilized spoon with an egg.

"We'll see you at the end." Jane told James, adjusting Melody on his back. "We'll be cheering for you."

"Good luck. I'm sure you'll do great." Lisbon smiled.

"Thanks." James smiled. "See you guys when I get down there."

Jane, Lisbon and Melody walked down to the finish line and waited for the race to start. Jane put Melody down.

"Okay, Melody. Cheer as loud as you can when they say go. Can you do that?"

Melody nodded.

"Okay. I thought so. And Teresa and I are going to help you."

They cheered with the rest of the families standing at the finish line when the race started.

"Come on, Daddy!" Melody cheered as the participants stumbled toward the finish, eggs wobbling on the spoons.

James was in the middle of the pack, but slowly advanced to third and then second, when the father in front of him had to stop and place the egg back on the spoon. He was tied for first, but managed to pull ahead just in time to finish first.

"Yay!" Melody hollered as she ran over and gave her father a hug. "You won, Daddy! You won!"

"I did." James smiled and hugged her. "You did such a good job cheering for me. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Melody kissed his cheek.

"Lets go see what else there is." Lisbon suggested and they headed off.

-Mentalist-

"Did you like your hotdog?" Lisbon asked Melody as they threw away their food wrappers after their meal. They were getting into the late afternoon and some parents were starting to head home.

"Yes." Melody nodded.

"That was an awful lot of ketchup you put on it." Jane teased. "You sure you even tasted the meat?"

"I did." Melody assured him. "Can we do the three-legged race now, Daddy?"

James glanced around and found the three-legged race. "I don't know. It looks a little rough."

"But, I want to do the three-legged race before they leave. They already took the bouncy castle. It won't be a rough race. I promise."

James looked back at the people already in the race, two people fell. He wanted to be around as long as he could and injuring his already fragile bones in a three-legged race was not the way to do that. "I'm sorry. I can't do the race."

"Okay." Melody pouted.

"I'll go with you."

Melody looked up at Jane, appearing hopeful. "You will?"

"Sure. I pushed you on the tire swing. I can go to the three-legged race."

"Okay." Melody beamed. "Yeah!"

"But after that, we go home, okay? Everything's winding down."

"Okay." Melody agreed as they headed for the three-legged race.

"See you guys at the finish." Jane said, giving Lisbon a kiss, then going with Melody to enter the race.

"Not too tight?" The volunteer that had tied their legs together asked.

"I'm good." Jane looked at Melody.

"It's good." Melody nodded.

Jane leaned down and whispered in Melody's ear. "Okay. Here's the plan."

Melody smiled and listened attentively.

"When I say one, we'll step with our untied foot. On two, we'll step with our tied foot. Can you remember that?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Lets get to the starting line, then. Shall we?"

They practiced their strategy to the starting line. _One, two. One two._ They waited in their spot at the starting line with the other groups for the volunteer to yell go.

"On your mark! Get set! Go!"

"One." Jane said and they both stepped with their outer legs. "Two." They stepped with their inner legs, Jane taking smaller steps to accommodate Melody. "One. Two." After a few steps they started a rhythm and picked up their pace as one pair near them fell and then another.

Melody was smiling brightly, staring at her feet to make sure she was moving them properly, occasionally glancing up to make sure they were heading straight.

"We're almost there." Jane told her.

Melody looked up and saw the finish line, then glanced sideways. "We have to go faster. They're catching up!" They could both hear Lisbon and James cheering them on.

"Then we'll go faster." Jane told her and they sped up their pace, trying not to fall. They made it over the line just in time, beating the other pair by only a few centimetres.

"Good job you two!" Lisbon clapped as she and James made their way over to them.

"You're a little champion." James kissed Melody's cheek and Melody giggled.

"Thank you." She smiled.

Jane and Melody's legs were untied and they were both given a blue ribbon for first place.

"That was so much fun!" Melody talked enthusiastically as they all made their way back to the car. "Did you have fun, Patrick?"

"Yes, I did." Jane smiled at her. "Thank you for inviting us."

"You're welcome." Melody gave him a tight hug before getting in the car and putting on her seatbelt.

The drive home was filled with conversation about their day and the food. It seemed all too soon that Lisbon pulled the car up in front of Melody and James' building and they had to say goodnight.

"I'm glad you guys came." James gave Lisbon and Jane each a hug.

"So am I." Lisbon smiled, giving Melody a hug.

"Sign me up for next year." Jane grinned.

"I'll be sure to do that." James nodded. "Thanks again for going with her at the three-legged race."

"Not a problem." Jane shook his head.

"Goodnight you two." Lisbon said.

"Goodnight." Melody and James replied together and they waved as they headed into their building.

Lisbon and Jane got back in the car, doing up their seatbelts.

"You okay over there?" Lisbon looked Jane's way.

He smiled at her. "I'm better than okay. I'm great, actually. That's one of the best Father's Days I've had in a very long time."

"Lisbon reached over and gave Jane's hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm glad to hear that."

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**Author's Note: Let me know what you thought in a review! Sorry again for the delay. Love you guys!**


	11. Life's No Picnic

**Author's Note: Hi, everyone! So, sosssooooo sorry that this took a little while to update. I was settling into a new job and then I was lazy and...yeah. This chapter is kind of sad, I'm not going to lie, but I think it's still a good chapter. And I can't even wait for the season 6 premier in September! Thank you to everyone who has followed, favourited, reviewed and stuck with me on this! I think you guys are awesome!**

**Disclaimer: I own some of the DVD's, but the the actual show.**

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Lisbon flopped on the bed with a huff. "When are we even going to find the time to go to Chicago?"

"I'm sure we'll think of something." Jane got into bed. "We have to. You really want to wait until their possible wedding to meet Annie's boyfriend?"

"They're dating, not engaged. God, don't scare me like that. She's already twenty one and Melody is ten. I feel so old." Lisbon crawled under the covers and turned off the light.

Jane laughed. "They don't stay babies forever."

"I know." Lisbon sighed. "I almost think I'd prefer that."

"We've got to make the best of everything."

"Yeah, I know." Lisbon snuggled against Jane and closed her eyes.

-Mentalist-

It felt like only seconds before Lisbon's phone was ringing, waking them both up. Tiredly, Lisbon reached for it.

"Work can wait." Jane mumbled, hugging her tighter.

"No one would call at-God, does that really say two am?-unless it was important." She answered her phone. "Hello?" She was silent for a moment, listening to the voice on the other end of the phone.

Jane felt her whole body tense as she sat straight up.

"When?" She sounded panicked. "Is he okay? And she's…yeah. Uh-huh. We're on our way." Lisbon disconnected the call and threw the blankets off herself, jumping out of bed. "Get up." She ordered Jane, who was now on alert as well.

"What's going on?" Jane quickly got out of bed, throwing a shirt on, not bothering to change out of his pyjama pants.

Lisbon threw on some pants she found lying around and hurried out of the room. "Melody needs us."

Jane was right on her heels as she flew down the stairs. "What? Why? What's wrong? What happened?"

"I don't know. James is unconscious and they don't know what's wrong. The ambulance isn't there yet. Hurry up!"

They ran out to the car and Jane was sure that Lisbon had never driven so fast in her life unless it had been for a car chase.

-Mentalist-

They made it to James and Melody's building just as the paramedics were hopping out of the ambulance. Lisbon flashed her badge when the paramedics were about to tell her to stay out for a few minutes and then she not very calmly explained she was family. The elevator ride seemed way too long and almost suffocating. Everyone was glad when the doors finally opened on the right floor.

"Here!" Melody yelled, half stepping out of her front door. She hurried inside, knowing the paramedics would follow her in. She sat next to her father, holding his hand with tears running down her cheeks, trying to tell him it was going to be okay and asking him to wake up.

"You need to get her out of the room." One of the medics told Lisbon.

Lisbon nodded and then looked at Jane. "You get Melody. I'll deal with the medics."

Jane hurried and knelt down next to Melody, wrapping his arms around her. "Come on." He whispered. "The paramedics have to do their job."

"No!" Melody swatted at him. "No!"

"Come on."

"No! I said no!" Melody swatted at him again. "I have to stay! I promised! I have to!"

"It'll be easier if we give the medics space." One of the medics accidentally bumped into Jane as he began his task.

"I said get her out of here." The lead paramedic snapped.

"I'm sorry, Melody." Jane whispered as he tightened his grip on her and pulled her away from James.

"No!" Melody screamed, not expecting Jane to actually force her away. "No! Daddy!" She kicked and flailed against Jane, but couldn't break free. Jane managed to drag her into her room and shut the door, leaning against it as he sat down and tried to hold on to Melody.

"Ssshhhhh…" He tried to soothe her.

"No!" Melody kicked out but only managed to kick air.

"It's okay, Melody. It's all going to be okay."

"It's not! They're going to take Daddy and I'm never going to see him again! I don't want him to leave! You let them take him! Why!? Let me go!"

"Nobody is going to take him away." Jane told her. "You'll see him again soon. They just need to take him to the hospital. He's not leaving forever. Teresa is with them. Do you really think Teresa would let them take him from you? Never."

"I promised I would stay with him!"

"He'll understand. I know he will. Sometimes you need to step back. You need to let the medics do their job. They're going try and make him better, we need to give them the space to do that. We'll visit him soon. I promise."

It took a little while, but Melody calmed down to just crying, no longer fighting against Jane's hold on her. She leaned her head against Jane's shoulder and he adjusted her so that she'd be more comfortable.

"Do you want anything?" Jane asked, combing his finger through her hair, soothingly.

"I want my Daddy. And I want my Teresa. I want Daddy to be okay."

"I know, Melody. I'm sure Teresa will join us in a minute." He kissed her head and then listened for sound coming from the living room. It sounded very calm, so they had probably moved James to the ambulance.

There was a soft knock on the door.

Jane scooted out of the way of the door with Melody and leaned against the wall. "Come in."

The door opened and Lisbon poked her head in. Quickly she stepped in and shut the door, taking a seat next to Jane. "Hi, baby." Lisbon kissed Melody's head. "Are you okay?"

Melody sniffed and gave a small nod.

"Do you feel better now that you have your Teresa?" Jane cooed.

Lisbon looked at him, confused.

Jane just gave a small smile and shook his head. He'd explain later. "You want to go to Teresa?" Jane let Melody go and she crawled over onto her aunt's lap, cuddling against her as Lisbon held her. Jane and Lisbon settled against each other.

"Is Daddy going to be okay?" Melody looked up at Lisbon.

Lisbon leaned forward and kissed Melody's nose. "He's alive. Thanks to you because you were such a brave girl. We'll visit him later, okay?"

Melody looked up at her aunt and blinked. "Me?"

Lisbon nodded. "You called nine-one-one and made sure your Daddy got help. That was very good."

A small smile tugged at the corners of Melody's mouth. "So, he'll be okay?"

"He's better off than he would have been if he didn't have you."

Melody snuggled back against Lisbon. "When can we see him?"

"Not for a little while." Lisbon told her.

"But I want to go now."

"I know, but we can't go now. You can stay with us for the night, though."

"No!" Melody gasped. "I need to stay here. I need to-what if they bring Daddy back and I'm not here?"

"We're going to go see him. He's going to stay where he is until we go see him. I promise." Jane told her.

"I'll pack a bag for you." Lisbon kissed Melody's head and then set her aside so she could get up.

Melody just sat there, feeling as lost as she looked.

Jane crouched in front of her. "Hey." He tapped the bottom of her chin with his index finger and she looked up at him. "You don't have to worry, okay? I know this was scary, but it's going to be all right."

Melody gave a small nod.

"You're never alone, okay?"

Melody nodded again.

"Good. Come on. Let's get you home and back to bed." He stood up and held out his hand to help Melody up.

She took it and when Lisbon was done packing a bag, they all left. The ride back was awkwardly silent, but no one could bring themselves to break it. By the time they got back, Melody's eyes were droopy so they quickly got her tucked in.

"Will you stay?" Melody asked.

"We're just across the hall." Lisbon told her.

"No. Stay here."

Lisbon and Jane looked at each other.

"We'll stay for a few minutes." Lisbon said.

Melody nodded and snuggled against her pillow.

Jane and Lisbon sat on the side of the bed and it didn't take Melody long to fall back asleep. They each gave her one last goodnight kiss on the forehead and quietly left.

"And how are you doing?" Jane asked, wrapping Lisbon up in a hug and kissing her forehead.

"I've been better." Lisbon choked out.

"I know. It's been a long night. Come on." He led Lisbon into their room, shutting the door and sat next to her on the bed.

Lisbon's elbows were propped on her knees, face in her hands.

"You want to talk about? Tell me what happened?" Jane tucked some hair behind her ear.

Lisbon removed her hands from her face and tried to blink away the tears, but it didn't help. They said he was iron deficient and exhausted."

"But he takes iron pills."

"I checked the pill tray. He didn't take his pills in the morning."

"I'm sure it was an accident." Jane said. "I'm sure he didn't leave them on purpose."

"He could have died. He's alive and they took him to the hospital, but they think he might be in a coma. How are we supposed to take Melody to the hospital just to find out her father might never wake up? I can't…I can't do that to her. It's not fair. She doesn't deserve this." Lisbon began to sob.

Jane rubbed her back. "It might not be that bad. He's strong. We'll just call ahead tomorrow. We can call and ask the hospital what's going on and how he's doing. Then we'll go from there. There's no point in imaging what we'll do in five different situations. We always manage to figure it out. We'll get through this. We always do, right?"

Lisbon just sniffled.

"For now, lets just go to bed. Hm? It's been a stressful few hours for all of us and I'm sure sleep will do us all some good." He wrapped Lisbon up in a tight hug and kissed her head. "We'll get a good night's sleep and then deal with everything tomorrow. We'll be ready for it tomorrow." He guided Lisbon to lie down and they both crawled under the covers.

"If you ever need to take prescription pills, don't you ever forget. Ever."

"You promise me the same thing."

"Promise."

* * *

**Author's Note: So, that was this chapter. Kind of sad, I know. Next chapter, they visit James in the hospital. Also, I recently got a tumblr(the link is in my profile) and I'm looking for tumblr friends, so send me a shout! You can also leave a review for this chapter. I appreciate that as well. ;) See you guys at the next chapter-which will hopefully be up sooner.**


	12. Do What You Need To Do

**Author's Note: Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. If it makes you all feel any better, it's pretty long! If that doesn't make you feel any better...then I'll just go find somewhere to hide and hope you all don't come after me. Lol. But here is that next chapter, that you guys have been waiting for! And thanks to all of you guys for your reviews, follows and favourites! They're all really appreciated!**

**Disclaimer: ):**

* * *

Lisbon and Jane woke up of their own accord in the morning, after turning off the alarms before going to sleep.

"Feeling any better?" Jane asked, kissing Lisbon's forehead.

Lisbon nodded. She was more rested and not as upset, but she was by no means perky.

"Would you like me to make us all some breakfast? You can stay here if you want."

"No." Lisbon mumbled and shook her head.

"You can come make breakfast with me, then. Chocolate chip pancakes. How does that sound?"

The corners of Lisbon's mouth turned up in the barest hint of a smile that almost reached her eyes. "Melody's favourite."

"Exactly. Start the day off well and hope it gets better from there. We'll give the hospital a call, too. See what's going on and figure out our game plan before we wake Melody up. Sound good?"

Lisbon nodded and they both got out of bed lazily. However, once they stepped out the door, Lisbon stopped. She looked across the hall at the closed door that blocked off Melody's room from view. Jane turned and looked at Lisbon.

"Go sit with her. I'll start breakfast myself."

Lisbon looked at him, surprised.

Jane pulled her into a hug and whispered, "It's clear you need to be with her. It's fine. I'll be right downstairs making breakfast. You go be with her."

Lisbon gave a small nod. "Thank you."

"It's not a problem." Jane kissed her lips sweetly before reluctantly stepping away and heading downstairs.

Lisbon watched him go for a moment before turning her attention back to Melody's room, walking across the hall, opening the door and poking her head in. She saw Melody still sleeping, so she quietly stepped in and closed the door behind her before making her way over to sit on the side of Melody's bed. Lisbon's heart clenched when she noticed the faded tear tracks on Melody's cheeks and how even in sleep, Melody wasn't peaceful. She gently rubbed her thumb over Melody's cheek and tucked some hair behind the young girl's ear. "It's going to be okay." Lisbon whispered. "I promise. We're going to make it through this. We love you." She kissed Melody's forehead and Melody stirred, trying to snuggle closer to Lisbon. "We're going to have a yummy breakfast and then we're going to try and have a good day." Lisbon said, even though Melody wasn't awake to hear her. She gave Melody one more kiss before she got up and left to join Jane in the kitchen.

"Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Bye." Jane pressed the end call button and placed the phone on the table as Lisbon entered the kitchen. He smiled at her as he walked over and gave her a hug. "Some good news. James fought through and isn't in a coma. He's not in the best shape, but at least he's not in a coma."

Lisbon sighed in relief. "Thank god." Lisbon wrapped her arms around Jane and held tightly. "I'm so glad to hear that."

"And to make this morning that much sweeter, come look at the pancakes."

"They smell good." Lisbon smiled.

"Thank you." Jane pulled her over to the stove, where some pancakes were cooking. He grabbed the spatula and flipped them to cook on the other side. "Melody still sleeping soundly?"

"She's sleeping." Lisbon gazed at the cooking pancakes.

"That doesn't sound very positive."

"She had tear tracks on her cheeks and she still looked worried in her sleep. This really impacted her. She's not going to bounce back from this as quickly as she normally would."

"I know that. This isn't a normal scenario. And I know you know that, too. But we can't smother her. That never works. Especially not with her. Maybe we'll get some take-out tonight. Watch a movie and cuddle on the couch with her. Pizza is her new favourite. We'll get some pizza."

"If only pizza could fix it." Lisbon leaned her head on Jane's shoulder.

"I know." Jane kissed her head. "But it's a place to start. We gotta start somewhere."

"I know." Lisbon sighed and they both watched the pancakes cook. When the pancakes were done, Jane and Lisbon both heard little footsteps upstairs.

"She's up." Jane glanced at the kitchen doorway as they heard the footstep descend the stairs.

Lisbon turned around and they saw Melody shuffle into the kitchen.

Melody glanced over at them and attempted a smile that looked more like an awkward grimace.

"Good morning, Melody." Lisbon said gently.

"Morning." Melody mumbled.

"We're having chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast." Jane tried to sound cheery. "Who do we know that likes those?"

"I like them." Melody sounded very unenthusiastic.

"How many do you want?" Jane asked.

Melody shrugged, staring at her place mat.

Lisbon and Jane shared a look before Lisbon made her way over to Melody.

Melody eyed her aunt cautiously as she pulled up a chair.

"Sweetie, I know you're upset, but it's going to be okay." Lisbon tucked some hair behind Melody's ear. "We're going to go see him today."

Melody looked up at that news.

"We are." Lisbon smiled and nodded.

"After, can we go to the park?"

"Sure. Of course. After we'll go to the park."

"But we need some bread crumbs. Daddy and me wanted to feed the ducks."

And just as quickly as Lisbon's smile had appeared, it faded. "Melody…I don't know if Daddy is going to be leaving the hospital today."

Melody's face fell. "Why not?"

"I think he might need more rest at the hospital."

"But it…we're just feeding ducks. It's not hard. He can sleep at home. I can even make mac and cheese now. He doesn't need to stay at the hospital."

"I think he might, Melody."

"We won't know anything for sure until we get there." Jane interrupted them, placing a plateful of pancakes in front of Melody. "The sooner we eat, the sooner we can get there and find out. And I didn't make these pancakes for decoration."

-Mentalist-

"Why are we still waiting?" Melody grumbled for the millionth time.

"I don't know." Lisbon sighed.

"Be patient, Melody." Jane said.

"I _have_ been patient for the last billion minutes."

"No, you've been _complaining_ for the last _five_ minutes." Jane corrected.

"Close enough." Melody folded her arms over her chest.

Lisbon chuckled.

"And what are you giggling about over there?" Jane raised a brow.

"I think I just lost my title as 'angry little princess'."

"Don't make fun of me. It was Patrick's idea for me to wear the crown."

"I thought you liked your crown." Jane pouted.

"I do like my crown. I don't like being made fun of."

"Nobody's making fun of you." Lisbon adjusted the colourful plastic on Melody's head. Admittedly, it was getting to be a bit small on her now.

A young nurse walked over to them, probably a trainee because she was so young. "Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon?"

"Why is it always _your_ last name people use?" Jane looked over at Lisbon.

"What's wrong with our last name?" Melody demanded.

"Nothing. That's not-"

"I'm sorry." The trainee blushed. "It said you're James Lisbon's family. I thought it was the same last name and-"

"It's fine." Lisbon shook her head. "What is it?"

The trainee looked down at Melody and then back up at Jane and Lisbon. "I just need a word with you two."

Lisbon and Jane looked at each other and then glanced down at Melody.

"Sure." Jane nodded, getting up.

"We'll be right back." Lisbon told Melody. "You stay right here."

"Why can't I know, too?"

"We'll tell you after."

"Why?"

"Melody, please. I'm sure she's just going to tell us what's been taking them so long and then tell us where James is. Stay here." Then Lisbon stood up and went to join Jane and the trainee nurse.

Slowly, Melody slid off the chair when she saw that there was no attention on her. She walked steadily to the door. If no one was going to tell her where her father was, she'd go find him herself.

"Hey!" Jane called.

Melody flinched and then took off.

"Melody!" Lisbon yelled.

Melody sprinted down the hall as fast as she could. He had to be somewhere close by. The waiting rooms weren't usually far away from her father's room when he'd been here before. Rounding a corner, Melody dove into the nearest room with an open door, shutting it behind her and hoping she could hide out to figure out where she was as well as where she needed to be.

"Who are you?"

Melody jumped and whirled around to see who the voice belonged to. She saw a young girl sitting up in a bed with an IV in her arm. Melody blinked, unsure how to reply.

"Are you a princess?"

"No." Melody shook her head, confused for a moment until she remembered that she was wearing her crown.

"Well, I like your crown. It's pretty."

"Thank you."

"I'm Lillian." The young girl smiled.

"I'm Melody. Why are you in here by yourself? Are you resting?" Melody made her way over to Lillian's bedside.

"I'm waiting for my Mommy." Lillian said.

Unable to get onto the bed, Melody dragged a visitors chair over and climbed up, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Why isn't she here? And why did they take your hair? Did you donate it?"

"My mommy went to work. She's going to come see me after. My hair fell out."

"Why?"

"Because of my therapy."

Melody gave her a strange look. "Doesn't sound like good therapy."

"Well, my hair can grow back if the cancer goes away. And where are your parents?"

"I don't know." Melody shrugged. "I'm trying to find my Daddy but the hospital kept making me wait so I'm looking for him by myself now."

"You're not going to get in trouble?"

"Yeah, probably. Teresa is going to be mad."

"Who's Teresa?"

"My aunt."

"Oh. Why is your Daddy here?"

"He's sick and he fainted last night. But, I called the ambulance and now he should be okay. Did you faint?"

"No. I have surgery tomorrow and I'm not feeling good today."

"Are you scared? For your surgery?"

Lillian looked away and nodded.

Melody shifted closer to her and placed a hand on Lillian's shoulder, smiling softly. "It's okay. Lots of people have surgery and are okay. And then you can get your hair back."

Lillian smiled. "I want Rapunzel hair. Really long. My Mommy and Daddy got me a wig for my fourth birthday and I felt like Rapunzel all day."

"How old are you now?"

"I'm five in two days. My Daddy is going to come back tomorrow and then the day after we're going to have cake to celebrate."

"Where's your Daddy?"

"He's touring the world with the military. He's really brave."

Melody opened her moth to reply but was cut off by the door opening, making her jump.

"Hey, Lil-Who's this?"

Melody gave the petite blonde woman that just walked in her best 'deer caught in the headlights' impression, unsure how to reply.

The woman looked at her for a moment. "You're not Melody, are you?"

"…Maybe…" Melody said slowly.

"You've got some people looking for you. They're really worried."

"Well, I'm okay."

"Mommy, her Daddy is in the hospital."

"Ssssshhhhh!" Melody turned to Lillian.

"They're going to be here in a moment." Lillian's mother glanced back out the door. "They're heading this way."

"Shut the door." Melody urged. "Teresa's gonna be mad and make us go home."

"I'll be right back." Lillian's mother stepped out and closed the door.

Melody turned to look at Lillian. "I'm in trouble now."

"I don't think they'll make you go home. You need to see your Daddy."

"I hope so. I hope everything goes well and you have fun with your family."

"Thank you. Me, too." Lillian smiled. "My Mommy and Daddy said that next year I can have a princess party!"

Melody smiled and thought for a moment. She took her crown off her head and placed it gently on Lillian's head. "Now you have a princess crown for you princess party."

Lillian's eyes sparkled as she reached up to touch the crown. "Are you sure?"

Melody nodded. "It was too tight on me, anyway."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

The room door opened again and Melody gulped, turning to face her aunt and uncle. She waved goodbye to Lillian before sliding off the bed and heading toward the door. She waved goodbye to Lillian's mother and stepped into the hall with Jane and Lisbon.

Lisbon and Jane looked down at Melody as the young girl shuffled her feet and looked away.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Lisbon's hands were on her hips.

"I'm sorry." Melody mumbled.

"What was that?" Lisbon coaxed.

"I'm sorry." Melody repeated a little more clearly.

"For?" Jane pushed.

"Running out of the room to find Daddy."

Lisbon crouched to be at eye level with Melody, gently tilting the girl's chin so that Melody was looking at her. "I know you're upset, but you still need to listen when we tell you something. You could have gotten really lost or hurt. I'm trying to keep you safe."

"I just want to find Daddy and nobody was helping us."

Jane crouched down next to Lisbon. "But that doesn't mean you can just run off by yourself, Melody. We need to stay together. You can't do everything by yourself. Do you understand?"

Melody nodded.

"Good." Jane said.

"We're not going to go home, right?" Melody asked. "We can still see Daddy?"

Lisbon kissed Melody's forehead. "Of course we're still going to see Daddy. But I'm very unhappy that you ran off. Especially after I told you to stay where you were."

"I know." Melody said quietly.

"We still love you, though." Jane reminded her. "One more question, though."

"What?" Melody looked over at him.

"Why'd you give away your crown? I thought it was your favourite."

"It was my favourite. But now it's too small and Lillian really wanted a crown. It's almost her birthday and she doesn't even have her hair. And she wanted her hair back. At least she has a crown now. It made her happy."

Jane smiled. "You don't miss it?"

"I miss it." Melody nodded. "But she wanted it more. She has her crown, I'm not losing my hair."

Lisbon cupped Melody's face with her hands and kissed her nose. "I'm very proud of you for that."

"Come on. Let's go see Daddy now."

"Yeah." Melody smiled brightly and they all made their way down that hall.

-Mentalist-

"Hi, Daddy!" Melody said excitedly as she entered her father's room with Jane and Lisbon. Jane lifted her up so that she could sit on the side of the bed.

"Hi, Melody." James smiled, giving her a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. Are you okay? When can you come home?"

"Slow down. One thing at a time." James smiled.

"Before we go home, we should go feed the ducks. Remember? We were going to feed the ducks with bread crumbs like we did before.

"Yes, I remember. You wanted to see that one with the funny foot. What did you name it again?"

"Squawk. His name is Squawk."

"Right." James nodded. "Squawk. But, how was your night? Were you okay?"

Melody nodded.

"I'm very sorry I scared you, Melody. I never meant to do that."

"I know, Daddy. Are you feeling better?"

"Yes. I'm feeling better. But you know what would be great?"

"What?"

"If you and Teresa could go get us all some cookies. You're very good at picking out the best cookies."

Melody smiled. "You always like the ones I pick."

"I know." James nodded.

"But, what about Patrick? What's he going to do?" Melody wondered.

"Patrick can keep me company while you two go."

Lisbon gave James and odd look and then looked at Jane. Jane was the one staying? Why not her? She was James' older sister!

James looked over at Jane, hoping the other man would go along with it.

Jane could practically hear James pleading with him. He turned to Lisbon. "He's right. You two should go. Don't worry, I'll keep him good company."

Lisbon gave him a sceptical look.

"I promise no shenanigans." Jane said.

Lisbon raised a brow.

"What?"

"There's something you both understand that I'm missing." Lisbon spoke loud enough for only Jane to hear. "I don't like it."

"It's going to be fine." Jane told her just as quietly. "Just go with Melody."

"Only if you tell me everything when I get back. Whatever it is you two talk about when we're gone, I want to know when I get back."

"Teresa-"

"I'm not kidding."

"Okay."

"Seriously, Patrick."

"Okay."

"I really mean-"

Jane interrupted her by pressing his lips to hers. "I promise. Now, go. I'm looking forward to these cookies."

Lisbon rolled her eyes at him before turning back to Melody and James. "Come on, Melody. Let's go find something yummy to eat."

Melody gave her father a hug before sliding off the bed and leading with her aunt.

James and Jane waited for a moment after the door closed before either spoke.

"Do you want to tell me the bad news or the very bad news first?" Jane broke the silence first.

"Wha-"

"I know that look. It's not a good one. And if it were good news, you wouldn't have asked them to leave or me to stay. It must be pretty bad if you'd rather tell me instead of Teresa."

"It's not good news, but it's not…" James shook his head. "Can I just…start with what happened yesterday?"

Jane nodded and took a seat. "Go ahead."

"Okay. I went to the park with Melody because I was feeling really good and I thought I could handle it. I thought I took all my pills, I swear. I didn't realise I hadn't taken whichever one's I'd left. I started to feel woozy after we were getting ready for bed and Melody wanted a glass of water. She was getting a glass of water when I started feeling worse and I went to call the doctor when I just suddenly couldn't support myself and collapsed. I'm very sorry. To you and Teresa, but mostly to Melody because she really shouldn't have had to see that."

"Teresa and I aren't angry at you, you know."

"I know. But I know that there would be a lot of questions about what happened. And I need you both to do me another big favour."

"What's that?"

"I need you both to take Melody."

"We did take her. She was with us all night."

"No." James shook his head. "I mean…" He took a deep breath. "I need you to let her move in with you guys."

Jane looked at him, shocked.

"This isn't an easy thing to ask, Patrick. I know you have to talk to Teresa and everything-"

"Then why am I the one you're talking to? This seems like something you should talk to her about."

"I want to, but I'm not sure I can. I don't know if she'd really listen to me. She wants me to get better so badly, I do too, but I still have to think about Melody. I can't let her see that happen again. To her, I'm always going to be the little brother that needs her guidance, but you're her husband. Maybe she'll listen more to you. I can't move to the care centre when I've got Melody living with me. I never wanted to ask this, but if it's what's best for Melody, I need to. I can still see her. She can visit and everything. Sometimes I'll be able to go out even. But I know that you and Teresa can take better care of her than I can." James voice broke and his eyes were moist. "I'm not going to do to her what my father did to us. Melody is not going to watch me slowly deteriorate into a useless parent that she needs to take care of. I promised myself that for _her_. If seeing her less means that I'll have more quality time with her, then that's what needs to happen."

Jane swallowed hard. "I understand. I'll talk to Teresa."

"Thank you."

Jane handed James some tissues and they waited for Lisbon and Melody to return.

"We're back." Melody walked in, holding a brown paper bag with Lisbon right behind her.

"What goodies did you bring us?" James clapped.

Jane lifted Melody up onto the bed.

"Excuse us a moment, would you?" Jane asked, getting up. "I just need to talk to Teresa for a moment outside." He glanced over at Lisbon who was still standing near the door. She really had been serious.

"But, what about your cookies?" Melody pouted.

"We'll have them when we come back." Jane kissed her head before heading out into the hall with Lisbon.

"Well?" Lisbon crossed her arms once they had closed the door and stood a few feet away.

"You should calm down."

"_Calm_?" Lisbon hissed. "My baby brother nearly died last night and you want me to be _calm_?"

"I'm going to tell you what we talked about, okay? I am. But I don't want you so worked up before I even tell you. It's not going to be easy to hear." But as soon as the last few words left his mouth, he knew they were a mistake.

Lisbon's face went pale, eyes big and upset. She didn't want to cry, but she knew she was probably going to and that only frustrated her further.

Jane took a step closer to her and hugged her tightly, tucking her head into the crook of his neck. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "I didn't mean to say it like that." He felt Lisbon's silent tears soak his shirt.

"This isn't going to get any easier, is it?" She whispered, wrapping her arms around him and holding tightly as he rubber her back.

"Only time will tell." Jane kissed her head.

"Basically you mean no."

"No. I don't mean that. I mean we have a lot to talk about. James wants Melody to stay with us."

Lisbon lifted her head and wiped at her cheeks. "What?"

"It's what's best for Melody. James doesn't want that to happen again."

"No." Lisbon shook her head. "Where is he going? He's not…he's not that bad…he-"

"Teresa." Jane interrupted. "He's not leaving us. He's not planning on dying. But, he believes it will be better for Melody if she stays with us. He needs to move into the care centre and Melody can't go with him. We can bring her to visit and everything."

Lisbon shook her head. "I don't want this to happen. I don't want to separate them."

"But this is what needs to be done. For Melody's sake."

"How do you seem so okay with this?"

"I know he's right. I want him to get better. And I want us all to be happy, but we still need to do what's best for Melody. Seeing her dad pass out like that once was horrifying enough. I'm not going to let her go through that again. And I know you don't want that either."

Lisbon shook her head.

"Besides, when James gets better, Melody can move back with him. She lives with us almost half the time anyway, right?"

A small smile tugged at the corners of Lisbon's lips. "Right."

Jane leaned forward and kissed her lips. "Everything is going to be okay."

Lisbon nodded and Jane wiped at the remaining tears.

"Let's go back in before Melody starts to worry about where we are." Jane gestured for Lisbon to go first and she did.

* * *

**Author's Note: And that's the end for now! Please leave a review! I'm debating if I want the next chapter to be what happens after they leave the hospital or not. I don't know. I'll have to see what happens. Thanks for reading!**


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